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First Person Infected With Computer Virus

A British scientist claims to be the first person infected with a computer virus. Dr. Mark Gasson of the University of Reading in the UK implanted himself with an RFID tag similar to the type used to identify animals, and then infected the tag with a computer virus.

"This technology has really developed over the last five or ten years. And now we should consider these devices to be like little computers that can store information, manipulate information and perform computations. So when we are implanting this type of device we are implanting a miniature computer... But with these advances in technology come new risks.

What I can do is [add to the existing information on the chip] a computer virus. So what this allows the chip to do is, when the chip is sensed by another computer, the chip infects the computer with the virus."


(Human infected with computer virus)

Science fiction readers recall that in Snow Crash, the 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson, a virus called Snow Crash is created that is both a mind-altering virus in the real world and a computer virus in the virtual world (the Metaverse).

"I don't see the connection between David's computer having a crash and you calling an ambulance..."

"...It was flashing up a large amount of digital information, in binary form. That digital information was going straight into Da5id's optic nerve..."

"Da5id's not a computer. He can't read binary code."

"He's a hacker... That ability is firm-wired into the deep structures of his brain. So he's susceptible to that form of information... A metavirus.

Update Jul-10-2020: The earliest description of a computer virus occurred in Gregory Benford's The Scarred Man. End update.

Via BBC.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/26/2010)

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Index of related articles:

What is RFID?
How RFID Works
How is RFID used inside a living body?
What can RFID be used for?
Is RFID Technology Secure and Private?
Are There Concerns About How RFID Will Be Used? (Update)
Next-Generation Uses of RFID?
What Are Zombie RFID Tags?
Problems With RFID
RFID Information Technology Articles
Advantages of RFID Versus Barcodes
RFID Glossary
Contactless Credit Card Advantages
Contactless Credit Card Disadvantages

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