LIKE their biological counterparts, computer viruses are locked in an evolutionary arms race. These programs, whose crucial characteristic is that they reproduce by copying themselves onto new machines, began as a curiosity in the early 1980s. Now, however, they—and other, similar, types of malicious software—support a multibillion-dollar industry in which those who use them to steal information and subvert computers struggle with those who devise and sell digital protection. With so much at stake, malware, as it is known, gets ever sneakier, while the programs designed to detect it must get cleverer and cleverer just to keep up.A paper presented to a conference in Bellevue, Washington, earlier this month describes—for the enlightenment of the white hats in this arms race—an innovation that may make viruses still sneakier. Its authors, Vishwath Mohan and Kevin Hamlen of the University of Texas at Dallas, call their program “Frankenstein”, after the fictional scientist who (at least, in film versions of the story) stitched together his monster out of body parts scavenged from graveyards and slaughterhouses.The…
