In the Wild

One of my customers noted that I had used the phrase "in the wild" to describe a virus/worm instance in a previous newsletter. He was wondering what this meant.
The art of finding and fixing potential and real problems with computer software and operating systems has developed over the last dozen or so years since the Internet became the method of choice for spreading havoc by first the individual hacker/cracker and now the well-funded criminal groups. In some cases the bad guys figure out some exploit and simply start using it. In others, the people who write and support the programs note that there is a "theoretical" exploit and work to fix it before it becomes a real one.

Initially, many companies tried to hide the fact that there were exploits in their code - and some still do. Most however now know that security has to be a proactive and open activity since so many problems are in fact related not only to the actual code the company has written, but to the tools and basic techniques they use - and sharing the knowledge brings everyone farther up the ladder faster.

An exploit that is theoretical may be noted and published in a security newsletter - usually at the same time the fix is published and made available. The problem is that in publishing the fact of the exploit, the bad guys get a bit of a hint and sometimes work quickly to put one out on the net - "in the wild" so to speak - released to see if it does what the bad guys want it to do... compromise systems so they can either use them to send spam or find financial information and use it for their direct gain.