LONDON - Would you believe that computer viruses can also infect humans? When heard it first time, it is probably impossible because both are very different physically. A computer virus is a digital code man-made, while the virus is an organic disease.
However, computer virus attacks the human body may occur when the computer-based tool integrates with the human body. For example, a virus attacked the robotic arm, an artificial heart, or organ implant which they are planted into the body for various purposes in the future.
To anticipate such attacks, Dr Mark Gasson, a cybernetic expert at the University of Reading, UK, doing an experiment. He created computer viruses and infected it into the Radio Frequency of Identification (RFID) chip embedded in his arm under the skin surface. This experiment was designed to demonstrate the model of virus spread to the implant tools used by human.
RFID-based devices that were implanted into the Gasson body is a kind of mini computer that emits a signal. Through the device, Gasson can access the security system to enter rooms of the laboratory or activate the cell phone. Its function is no different with the access cards in general.
When Gasson enter the laboratory, a computer that regulates access to the room will read the implant device. That's the entrance to create a virus that has been invested to infect a computer laboratory. When his colleagues also went into the laboratory, the virus was transmitted to the RFID devices of these people.
This experiment shows how computer viruses can be transmitted wirelessly between people when there is a means of communication between them. One time, an evil person could have allowed the virus to penetrate the security system of restricted areas such as university or corporate database servers through this pattern.
In this experiment, RFID implant users may not be interrupted his health when a computer virus infects the device in his body. However, what if the virus attacked the vital organ implanted in, for example, a hearing aid or an artificial heart?
