Malicious Code

Abstract

In a mere 16 months, from March 1918 to June 1919, the Influenza Pandemic infected and killed between 20 and 70 million people, worldwide [1]. While the virus infected nearly one-fifth of the world’s population, the fatality rate was a startling 2.5% of the infected victims, implying one new death every 2 s [2]. One might ask, why this digression into epidemiological history? The answer is simply, this is the closest analogy to what we are up against. Our modern computing infrastructure, comprised of personal computers, servers, Internet routers, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a myriad of other devices, are all viable “hosts” for an equivalent “digital” pandemic.