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Antivirus is dead; Long live antivirus!

Or as the Romans would have said, “mortuus est antivirus; vivat antivirus!”. The Romans understood viruses very well…just not the computer kind. When the Romans besieged an enemy city or encampment, they would launch arrows that were dipped in feces and dipped in corpses of animals or deceased centurions. This way even if the enemy soldiers survived the initial wounding by arrow, they would eventually die of infection, sepsis or something just as painful. Also, the infection would spread to non-combatants. This cruel battlefield calculus enabled the Romans to buy time and to gain whatever incremental advantage that was possible. The ancients realized that it wasn’t just swords, ballistas, shields, and arrows that yielded victory. The other key advantage was the unseen weapon…viruses.

Fast forward to now – Hackers also understand this unseen weapon as well.