[LINK] the state of malware (including pdf stock spam)

[Paul Brooks]

Howard Lowndes wrote:
>
> Back when flashable BIOS appeared, there was a virus that flashed the 
> BIOS and rendered the computer dead.  That's why BIOS now usually has 
> a flash jumper on the mobo.
>
In the early days virii used to inhabit or replace the boot-block on the 
disk, particularly floppy disks. Now most motherboards have a setting to 
protect and alarm on write attempts to the boot-block.
Unfortunately it is still usually defaulted to OFF, so only those with 
clue enough to go into the mobo settings get to enable it.

Its malware-driven evolution - look at the rapid sophistication of 
bayesian analysis and other learning algorithms, I suspect they wouldn't 
have developed quite so rapidly in the absence of spam.

so embrace spam and other malware - its the driver of the future :-)