Bug Watch: The end of the world isn't nigh

This week's expert, Natasha Staley, antivirus consultant at Sophos, doesn't think that the world will end in digital disaster.

Past generations were warned that an asteroid would destroy the planet, that Armageddon would wipe out the human race or that the Antichrist would arrive and terrorise the earth. Forecasts such as these had one thing in common: they never happened.

Now we're told that a new danger looms in the form of the ultimate computer virus.

Various vendors and academics have warned of a 'Warhol' virus that could infect the internet in 15 minutes, (not to be confused with the recent Coolnow instant messenger virus which some commentators mistakenly dubbed Warhol), or a 'motherlode' virus, which would be undetectable and unstoppable.

Either of these could apparently cause mass destruction, effectively ending computer use as we know it.

So, should we pull our network connections, give up on email and boost the struggling postal system? Hide under the duvet?

I don't think so. These predictions of internet meltdown are not based on fact. The truth is that it would be impossible for any virus to infect the entire internet this quickly.

Different operating systems, a wide variety of security applications, varying time zones and the fact that not all machines are permanently connected make the concept totally unfeasible.

Admittedly, computer viruses have become more sophisticated, both technically and psychologically.

Most recently, Nimda launched a multi-pronged attack and attempted to infect users via email, the web and network shares. Others, like Kournikova, promised a sexy image in order to tempt users to activate the virus.

Companies which had put in place safe computing guidelines, such as blocking dangerous content at the gateway, were already protected against these viruses.

For those which hadn't, updates to antivirus software were quickly developed to provide protection, and there is no reason to believe that future threats will be any more difficult to stop.

Indeed, Dr Fred Cohen's seminal work on the theory of computer viruses in the early 1980s proved mathematically that writing a virus which can circumvent all antivirus software is simply not possible. All viruses have their antidote.

A combination of deploying good, regularly updated antivirus software, and following safe computing guidelines, will ensure protection against current and future viruses.

We shouldn't be complacent, but we must keep the scale of the threat in perspective. It isn't time to stock up on corned beef, batten down the hatches and migrate to the nuclear bunkers just yet.