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Title: Constructing computer virus phylogenies

Abstract

There has been much recent algorithmic work on the problem of reconstructing the evolutionary history of biological species. Computer virus specialists are interested in finding the evolutionary history of computer viruses--a virus is often written using code fragments from one or more other viruses, which are its immediate ancestors. A phylogeny for a collection of computer viruses is a directed acyclic graph whose nodes are the viruses and whose edges map ancestors to descendants and satisfy the property that each code fragment is ``invented`` only once. To provide a simple explanation for the data, we consider the problem of constructing such a phylogeny with a minimal number of edges. In general, this optimization problem cannot be solved in quasi-polynomial time unless NQP=QP; we present positive and negative results for associated approximated problems. When tree solutions exist, they can be constructed and randomly sampled in polynomial time.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Warwick Univ., Coventry (United Kingdom) Dept. of Computer Science
  2. Aston Univ., Birmingham (United Kingdom) Dept. of Applied Mathematics
  3. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  4. International Business Machines Corp., Yorktown Heights, NY (United States). Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
236226
Report Number(s):
SAND-96-0716C; CONF-960679-2
ON: DE96006990
DOE Contract Number:  
AC04-94AL85000
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: 7. symposium on combinatorial pattern matching, Laguna Beach, CA (United States), 10-12 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 MATHEMATICS, COMPUTERS, INFORMATION SCIENCE, MANAGEMENT, LAW, MISCELLANEOUS; COMPUTERS; SECURITY; ALGORITHMS; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; QUALITY ASSURANCE; SECRECY PROTECTION

Citation Formats

Goldberg, L A, Goldberg, P W, Phillips, C A, and Sorkin, G B. Constructing computer virus phylogenies. United States: N. p., 1996. Web.
Goldberg, L A, Goldberg, P W, Phillips, C A, & Sorkin, G B. Constructing computer virus phylogenies. United States.
Goldberg, L A, Goldberg, P W, Phillips, C A, and Sorkin, G B. 1996. "Constructing computer virus phylogenies". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/236226.
@article{osti_236226,
title = {Constructing computer virus phylogenies},
author = {Goldberg, L A and Goldberg, P W and Phillips, C A and Sorkin, G B},
abstractNote = {There has been much recent algorithmic work on the problem of reconstructing the evolutionary history of biological species. Computer virus specialists are interested in finding the evolutionary history of computer viruses--a virus is often written using code fragments from one or more other viruses, which are its immediate ancestors. A phylogeny for a collection of computer viruses is a directed acyclic graph whose nodes are the viruses and whose edges map ancestors to descendants and satisfy the property that each code fragment is ``invented`` only once. To provide a simple explanation for the data, we consider the problem of constructing such a phylogeny with a minimal number of edges. In general, this optimization problem cannot be solved in quasi-polynomial time unless NQP=QP; we present positive and negative results for associated approximated problems. When tree solutions exist, they can be constructed and randomly sampled in polynomial time.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/236226}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1996},
month = {Fri Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1996}
}

Conference:
Other availability
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