First human infected with computer virus

First human

news.bbc.co.uk

A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus.

Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading contaminated a computer chip which was then inserted into his hand.

The device, which enables him to pass through security doors and activate his mobile phone, is a sophisticated version of ID chips used to tag pets.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 26-5-2010 by Master Shen long]

Oh my....... What are the implications of this in the future.... In other words if they can fine tune PC virus's we are all mega doomed.

i am totaly speachless, this is realy bad news for mankind, forget AI as a future threat, this is the weapon of the future.

The powers that be will have a field day with this. Forget the pig/swine flu.... Welcome to the new war.... John connor will be spinning in his futuregrave

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Edit... Upon reading this at a slower less frantic rate it seems he has not been "infected" as the article headline states but implanted with a virus which infects computers and sensors he passes through... Still bad news for the future but good news for futre weapons

[edit on 26-5-2010 by Master Shen long]

At first I was expecting to see something along the lines of the Melinda (or I Love You) virus.

Pretty misleading title, unfortunately for what passes as a journalist these days, I don't think it was intentional.

Interesting idea, but easily detectible...I give it time though. Hard telling what we will see in this arena of "carriers".

Originally posted by Ahabstar
At first I was expecting to see something along the lines of the Melinda (or I Love You) virus.

Pretty misleading title, unfortunately for what passes as a journalist these days, I don't think it was intentional.

Interesting idea, but easily detectible...I give it time though. Hard telling what we will see in this arena of "carriers".

Yea the beeb need to sort this title out, thats unless there is to be a story update soon and there is more to be added.... Wonder if i can give my netbook herpes? Or my Xbox a dose of the clap? Not that i have either

Ok I'm somewhat of a "techie" and I don't understand this. If it's wireless signal through the air the turn on/off various devices, how does it "infect" anything? I can't see it needing to send packets to a door to tell it to open rather than a single signal like a tv remote. That being said, I don't see where this so called "virus" is applicable.

Let's just say that it does have some sort of communications room to spread its virus to foreign electronics, what does the virus do, make his door open and close randomly?

This just doesn't seem to be anything big or even remotely important. Also You'd have to see how the equipment is made. Certain viral programs can only run on certain operating systems. Since the most majorly used OS is Windows, 90% of all viral content on the web requires shell files( or .dll's) to run off off. I can't see and RFID or any sister hardware using software that would be so easily obtained for coding viral bluetooth software. Then there is the matter of uploading the virus into the device, which again, I don't see happening.

This "scientist" just wanted to be able to claim he was the first to get infected by a computer virus.

This isn't any different then a cellphone with a computer virus and your dog ate it. Now the dog is the first dog infected with a computer virus?

Lame. He's not infected with anything.

Pathetic story

This isn't any different then a cellphone with a computer virus and your dog ate it. Now the dog is the first dog infected with a computer virus?

Actually it its even simpler.
To my knowlege rfid chips are like a small flash rom accessable via wireless power and communication. So the virus would have to be written for the operating software of the system using the device.
Well it may be possible to produce rfid chips with a cpu and operating system in the future but it will be some years before that.

My best advice is avoiding any kind of implatable technology (except medical devices like pacemakers) at all costs for obvious reasons...

PS: Under normal useage of rfid chips they store only data so there should be no way a system could be infected except it is designed to do so. Anyone heard of computer viruses in .txt files?

[edit on 26-5-2010 by kybertech]

Computers are people. That is a fact, yet the terminology is now a buzzword for the box by your desk.

A computer virus is now different from any virus. A virus is a virus. There are good and bad viruses.

One kind of virus is made up of organic compounds and another virus is made up of electrochemical compounds.

Despite these facts, a software virus that mutates into an organic compound based virus as a parasitic organism sounds sci-fi. Then again, there were reports of 'synthetic life' in another thread.

[edit on 26-5-2010 by dzonatas]

sorry to burst the bubble, but digital data, which doesnt really exist cannot do anything to skin and bone, no matter how mad scientist it sounds.

their is an implication though, where if people have implants like pacemakers , and they also have one of these chips implanted to communicate with doors and the such, that the chip could get a virus that could do something to a pacemaker, as the body is a massive conductor so the data could in theory pass between the chip and pacemaker!

Remember though, im not ... whatever kind of scientist that covers this field is ... this is mearly my own speculation.

EDIT

although, it would be pretty funny to make a virus that went on his fancy door opening chip, and make it so the virus reverses everything, like slams doors shut when he gets near them and all sorts of comical annoyances like that!

[edit on 26-5-2010 by boaby_phet]

You all should read the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's about a computer virus that is capable of infecting the human mind, which is, after all, a big biological computer.

Fantastic book, and a very fun read, too. (Any book with a lead character named Hiro Protagonist hast to be good!)

[edit on 5/26/2010 by LifeInDeath]

reply to post by Master Shen long


Seriously, dude, you posted a thread on here without even properly reading the article yourself? Bad form :shk:

It seem the Beeb have dropped a bit of a bollock on the title of this one really doesn't it? The man is not infected, the chip is.

As for pacemakers etc being affected by viruses, I suppose that it's entirely likely, as they become more sophisticated. i'm sure at some point in the future, they will probably cummunicate with a central system of some sort, giving status reports and receiving updates, keeping it working at optimal perfomance. It could even report errors and faults, preventing possible illness or death. This would of course leave it open to viruses, as viruses can infect anywhere there's an open comms port.

Originally posted by nik1halo
reply to post by Master Shen long

 

Seriously, dude, you posted a thread on here without even properly reading the article yourself? Bad form :shk:

Sure, i seen the headline on the beeb, flicked through it and posted it as fast as i could to inform the masses here on ATS... Then within a few minutes i edited my post leaving what i first posted and rectifying in the edit..... Just misled by the title as im sure many thousand of peop;e where.
And bad form? Not realy. I live my life in the real world with great succsess not online.



[edit on 26-5-2010 by Master Shen long]

reply to post by dzonatas


So if the synthetic life thread as you stated could be merged with a virus that is computer based then i presume things could get messy. If they have created a synthetic cell then it only needs a few tweeks to take on a synthetic virus and dumped into the gene pool of life.

reply to post by Master Shen long


Seems like the journalist got caught up in the fanfare. Not really journalism at its finest.

That being said, in the future when we are all chipped viruses infecting said chips will be a major problem. Imagine soldiers on a battlefield with id chip weapons being unable to fire because of the enemy information warfare capabilities. It's going to happen. Information warfare will become the penultimate exoression of war.

"The idea that we will soon have things like this under our skin (holds up RFID chip) seems like something out of science fiction"

- BBC news correspondent - news 24

Either I have been logging in here for far too long or I take it that this off the cuff, rather flippant quote pretty much summed up the PTB's intent and if it did not then the news corespondant holding up the chip chose a very bad way to get his story across because I nearly choked on my rich tea biscuit I kid you not.

I have said it before and I will say it again. The only way anyone is putting a chip under my skin is by first chasing me down the street, tazering/beating me unconscious and then stabbing me with the chip implantation tool.

After that they had better be several miles away, moving like a bat out of hell because I will be looking to place the culprit on the naughty step with extreme prejudice





[edit on 26-5-2010 by SmokeJaguar67]

reply to post by dontblink


I hear you, it seems like this could be infowar, conventional war and biological warfare all mixed in to 1 if this was to be fully researched by TPTB (which im sure they are doing).

Seems to be a little confusion here... The man's IMPLANTED CHIP was infected with a computer virus, NOT the man!

Anyone who has worked with technology for any amount of time has seen this one coming for years. This was born back in the 1990s as criminal used certain electronics to capture your car alarm code or garage door opener cade and then retransmit it to gain entry. It advanced when hackers started using wi-fi and bluetooth technology to transmit a virus to your smart phone or steal data from your mobile device as they walked past you on the street. The sad fact of the matter is that anyone paying attention could see this coming a mile away.

It only shows how vulnerable human made technology really is, anything man made can be tampered and easily played with.

I worry more about the body reactions to foreign objects implanted than viruses within the implants.

Originally posted by marg6043

I worry more about the body reactions to foreign objects implanted than viruses within the implants.

Why even worry about that? We've been using implants of one kind or another for decades; glass eyes, artificial hips, pacemakers, cochlear implants, electrical impulse brain probes for treating seisures etc etc. The body does not react negatively to these.

It's been said that these chips are only more advanced forms of what we've been putting into out pets without any negative side effects.

The real worry should be what TPTB are planning to do with this tech once it's widely available and desseminated.

Originally posted by kozmo
It advanced when hackers started using wi-fi and bluetooth technology to transmit a virus to your smart phone or steal data from your mobile device as they walked past you on the street.

Yeah, bloover was a fun little tool, although I obviously never abused it...

You're right though, this tech, like all, is ripe for abuse by the criminal element during it's infancy.