If you use a computer for any part of your daily life you’re probably aware of malware, ransomware and plenty of other viruses out there that are designed to either take over your device, steal your information or hold your information for ransom.
Millions are spent every year trying to combat these threats as their effects can be devastating so it is surprising to see this laptop up for sale.
The laptop in question is a Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-Inch Blue Netbook, running some of the most dangerous malware threats ever created. The malware contained on the laptop have caused over $95 billion in damages over their time. It is being sold as a piece of art called ‘The Persistance of Chaos’
A bit more on the included malware:
- WannaCry: WannaCry was an extremely virulent ransomware cryptoworm that also set up backdoors on systems. The attack affected 200,000+ computers across 150 countries, and caused the NHS $100M in damages with further totals accumulating close to $4B.
- BlackEnergy: BlackEnergy 2 uses sophisticated rootkit/process-injection techniques, robust encryption, and a modular architecture known as a “dropper”. BlackEnergy was used in a cyberattack that prompted a large-scale blackout in Ukraine in December 2015.
- ILOVEYOU: The ILOVEYOU virus, distributed via email and file sharing, affected 500,000+ systems and caused $15B in damages total, with $5.5B in damages being caused in the first week.
- Mydoom: MyDoom, potentially commissioned by Russian e-mail spammers, was one of the fastest spreading worms. It’s projected that this virus caused $38B in damages.
- Sobig: SoBig was a worm and trojan that circulated through emails as viral spam. This piece of malware could copy files, email itself to others, and could damage computer software/hardware. This piece of malware caused $37B in damages and affected hundreds of thousands of PCs.
- DarkTequila: A sophisticated and evasive piece of malware that targeted users mainly in Latin America, DarkTequila stole bank credentials and corporate data even while offline. DarkTequila costed millions in damages across many users.
This scary bit of kit is being sold as a piece of art by Guo O Dong in collaboration with Deep Instinct, a cybersecurity company that uses deep learning to protect computers from unknown malware threats in real-time. It’s being sold as art as it is illegal to sell malware in the US.
If you want to buy the laptop you’ll have to dig deep, at the time of writing the bids are up to over $400,000. Also, there is a caveat when you purchase, you have to promise not to release the malware back into the wild, so that’s definitely safe then!
You can follow the live acution here. Don’t panic, the link is safe!
