Virus classes are on!

Dr. John Aycock is the professor that teaches the infamous "Computer Viruses and Malware" at the University of Calgary. He was gracious enough to answer a quick email interview about the class.

> Does U of C still offer the virus writing class?

Hi, . Yes, we do. In fact, next year it'll be getting a "real"
calendar entry.

> Did you have students create new viruses or just reverse engineer existing
> ones?

As a CIS student, you can appreciate that as soon as you change a single
bit in a virus, you'd have a new virus from a technical point of view.
Students do write their own viruses as well as anti-virus software.

> Did the backlash from the internet community deter you in any way?

I have a pretty thick skin :-)

> Would you like to see the course taught at other colleges?

*If* appropriate safeguards are taken, then I think it could be
beneficial. We've tried a couple of decades with it not being
taught; maybe it's time for a change.

> What is the main programming language you teach for virus writing?

It doesn't really matter, since you can write viruses in lots of
languages. Ideally a language (or languages) the students know
that can be used easily for low-level system programming.

I would like to thank Dr. Aycock for taking time to answer my questions.
I hope my college offers a similar course in the future. I myself have no intention of ever writing a virus but I do enjoy event driven programming and I believe that virus code may give a new outlook on methods of execution.