[Dailydave] The Root of our Tree

[Dave Aitel]

From a NY Times article on the biologist investigating the immortal
jellyfish:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

"""
Kubota grew up in Matsuyama, on the southern island of Shikoku. Though
his father was a teacher, Kubota didn't get excellent marks at his high
school, where he was a generation behind Kenzaburo Oe. "I didn't study,"
he said. "I only read science fiction." But when he was admitted to
college, his grandfather bought him a biological encyclopedia. It sits
on one of his office shelves, beside a sepia-toned portrait of his
grandfather.


"I learned a lot from that book," Kubota said. "I read every page." He
was especially impressed by the phylogenetic tree, the taxonomic diagram
that Darwin called the Tree of Life. Darwin included one of the earliest
examples of a Tree of Life in "On the Origin of Species" --- it is the
book's only illustration. Today the outermost twigs and buds of the Tree
of Life are occupied by mammals and birds, while at the base of the
trunk lie the most primitive phyla --- Porifera (sponges),
Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Cnidaria (jellyfish).
"The mystery of life is not concealed in the higher animals," Kubota
told me. "It is concealed in the root. And at the root of the Tree of
Life is the jellyfish."
"""

Jellyfish are interesting to trojan writers. Deep at their heart they
are colony creatures, with stealth capabilities. What could be more
pertinent to those of us who feed on the world's information like
opportunistic predators?

Right now my feeling is that the world has been lucky because most of
the malicious software on the internet has been, at worst, a
rapscallion, or  a scofflaw, or perhaps a ne'er-do-well.  And there are
modern networks who fare pretty well against that kind of adversary. But
longer term, there's going to be malware that resembles science fiction
<http://www.immunityinc.com/downloads/TheLongRun.pdf>...or maybe
jellyfish? :>

-- 
INFILTRATE - the world's best offensive information security conference.
April 2013 in Miami Beach
www.infiltratecon.com

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