A First: Human Being Infected With Computer Virus

To calm your nerves: the name of the virus was not Snow Crash.

British scientist Dr. Mark Gasson purposely infected the RFID chip in his hand with a computer virus, and successfully proved that such devices can carry malicious programs to other systems, and that those systems in turn could pass on the code to any other chips that came into contact with them.

From the BBC:

Dr Gasson admits that the test is a proof of principle but he thinks it has important implications for a future where medical devices such as pacemakers and cochlear implants become more sophisticated, and risk being contaminated by other human implants.

“With the benefits of this type of technology come risks. We may improve ourselves in some way but much like the improvements with other technologies, mobile phones for example, they become vulnerable to risks, such as security problems and computer viruses.”

I’m not sure what it says about our species that the first person infected by a computer virus did it on purpose.  …Wait, WHAT’S THAT DALEK DOING THERE?

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Susana Polo

Susana Polo thought she'd get her Creative Writing degree from Oberlin, work a crap job, and fake it until she made it into comics. Instead she stumbled into a great job: founding and running this very website (she's Editor at Large now, very fancy). She's spoken at events like Geek Girl Con, New York Comic Con, and Comic Book City Con, wants to get a Batwoman tattoo and write a graphic novel, and one of her canine teeth is in backwards.

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