Soon, computer viruses may assemble themselves from other bits of code, says an article in The Economist.

“Like their biological counterparts, computer viruses are locked in an evolutionary arms race. These programs, whose crucial characteristic is that they reproduce by copying themselves onto new machines, began as a curiosity in the early 1980s. Now, however, they—and other, similar, types of malicious software—support a multibillion-dollar industry in which those who use them to steal information and subvert computers struggle with those who devise and sell digital protection. With so much at stake, malware, as it is known, gets ever sneakier, while the programs designed to detect it must get cleverer and cleverer just to keep up.”

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