With covid we saw how a deadly virus shut down the world economy and it became a political issue and the right became pro virus. Well is a computer virus with covid characteristics something the left should worry about?

  • EnsignRedshirt [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Not really. A computer virus is only somewhat analogous to a virus, and the conditions by which they spread are different. A computer virus is a program that exploits a specific security vulnerability in a specific piece of software. A human has to find the exploit, then design the virus, then release it. After it's released, it generally gets patched very quickly and the exploit can't be used again. Computer viruses don't "mutate", nor do they affect systems that don't use the software that has the exploit.

    Basically, imagine if COVID only affected a subset of the population, couldn't mutate into other variants, and a vaccine could be tested, manufactured, and distributed overnight. Computer viruses can be disruptive/destructive, but they're limited and vulnerable in ways that biological viruses are not.