Can computer viruses mutate?

Computer viruses are not so different from other viruses. The way biological viruses infect organisms, computer viruses infect computers. And the way biological viruses mutate and evolve for survival, the makers of so-called malware must keep updating their "products" in order to escape antivirus software.Sep 4, 2012 read more

At that time, it had service pack 2, but the technician said the problems the computer was having were due to a virus, and when he reinstalled the software, he updated the computer to service pack 3. The technician told me the computer was "inoculated" against that particular virus, but he also added viruses can mutate. read more

Computer viruses are not so different from other viruses. The way biological viruses infect organisms, computer viruses infect computers. And the way biological viruses mutate and evolve for survival, the makers of so-called malware must keep updating their "products" in order to escape antivirus software. read more

Researchers pitted self-replicating computer programs against computer viruses in the domain of the Avida platform for digital evolution. The co-evolution of host and virus ultimately led to organisms with capabilities superior to those of organisms that evolved without battling the viruses, says Luis Zaman of Michigan State University’s BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. read more