  The development and evolution of malware including computer viruses, worms,
and trojan horses, is shown to be closely analogous to the process of community
succession long recognized in ecology. In particular, both changes in the
overall environment by external disturbances, as well as, feedback effects from
malware competition and antivirus coevolution have driven community succession
and the development of different types of malware with varying modes of
transmission and adaptability.
