I get prompted any time one of my books is cited in legitimate research journals. A group of Kuwaiti researchers wrote a paper that, to quote the researchers, finds that “In a nutshell, this research indicates that there is a possibility of converting computer viruses into beneficial programs for storage space and CPU optimization.” The paper is available here: http://www.jatit.org/volumes/Vol101No10/19Vol101No10.pdf
I’ve often said that agent-based device management tools (and let’s keep in mind that MDM is an Apple-supplied agent) are in a way commercially supported advanced persistent threats. After all, they have similar command and control architectures… These are often larger, monolithic architectures that grow, and so consume more resources over time. The idea of using smaller bits of code in an almost micro serviced binary kind of way is a unique and interesting approach. The idea of those being self-replicating in a way mirrors the idea of how we script around what happens when our own agents die on the fly or when we update them to new versions.
However, the concept of polymorphism and other attributes of self-replicating binaries (and somewhat evolving, given the ability to now use generative coding techniques) is where I get lost. Having said that, the latest virus techniques are great to know by anyone who builds agents. There are crafty bits that can be extracted and applied to our own practices. Just don’t have them try and replicate to other machines. That’s where things get whackadoodle…