Murder by Malware: Can a Computer Virus Kill?
Can malware kill? It can cause massive damages that on a dramatic day might lead you to say something like, “This %*^@# is killing me!” Computer viruses can also induce those feelings, because you might be “free” 24/7 family tech support, and must deal with family members who refuse to take care of their computers and keep infecting their systems until it needs to be reformatted. Some people may feel like they want to die when malicious software manages to infect online banks and empty out accounts. So malware, viruses, trojans, and such, may cause you pain and suffering; but now I’m wondering how many times malware has actually killed people? We’ve seen ploys for media hype such as when Dr. Mark Gasson of Reading University injected a virus-infected RFID chip in his hand, becoming the “first human infected with a computer virus.” Unless he was part cyborg, the computer virus in his system couldn’t possibly be fatal. Security experts like Sophos’ Graham Cluley were anything but impress
