Computer Viruses: The Abstract Theory Revisited

TL;DR

This paper advances the abstract theory of computer viruses by providing formal definitions and methods to connect theoretical models with real-world virus behaviors, aiding in understanding and defending against threats.

Contribution

It introduces a new method for defining classes of viruses abstractly, improving upon previous techniques and linking theory with actual virus implementations.

Findings

Formal definitions for virus classes are established.

The connection between abstract models and real viruses is analyzed.

The method facilitates studying fundamental virus properties.

Abstract

Identifying new viral threats, and developing long term defences against current and future computer viruses, requires an understanding of their behaviour, structure and capabilities. This paper aims to advance this understanding by further developing the abstract theory of computer viruses. A method of providing abstract definitions for classes of viruses is presented in this paper, which addresses inadequacies of previous techniques. Formal definitions for some classes of viruses are then provided, which correspond to existing informal definitions. To relate the abstract theory to the real world, the connection between the abstract definitions and concrete virus implementations is examined. The use of the proposed method in studying the fundamental properties of computer viruses is discussed.