Security Experts Lambast Human Malware Guinea Pig

When Dr Mark Gasson of Reading University injected himself with a chip containing a computer virus in a bid to capture some media attention, little did he know the fury he would have caused to more serious security experts worldwide.

Sophos' senior technology consultant (and incidentally regular blogger), Graham Cluley, criticised the academic's move saying that claims he made that he had been "infected" by a computer virus were sheer nonsense.

Cluley added that it was sheer scaremongering and that he had "more chance of being flattened by a falling grand piano than I have of getting my dog virus-infected next time I take him to the vets".

Chris Boyd, a security researcher for Sunbelt Software, wrote on Twitter that he;s going to sew an infected Bluetooth phone to his chest and claim that he is infected with a virus.

Obviously, there is absolutely no chance that a non organic computer virus will manage to infect a human being simply by "jumping" from a piece of silicon to the human body.

However, the rise of short distance wireless transmitters (RFID) and the growing medical applications of autonomous, intra-body, computer controlled peripherals (insulin dispensers, pacemakers), may, in the near future cause some concerns.