Viruses and malware are an ever-growing threat in today’s world. We’re constantly trying to keep you ahead of the game when it comes to the latest online threats , so hopefully you’ve stayed safe up to now. The threats are out there though, and the biggest of them have wreaked havoc on a global scale. This is why continued vigilance is always recommended.
We’re not here today, however, to talk about how to stay safe when you’re online. We’re here to talk about six of the biggest threats and, surprisingly, a laptop that is on sale that comes fully loaded with each of them.
A Chinese internet artist is selling a laptop that contains the six most dangerous pieces of malware in existence
Guo O Dong has done something interesting, if not a little bewildering. In the name of art, he has taken an old Samsung NC10 notebook, filled it with the six most dangerous pieces of malware out there, and put it up for sale in an online auction. He has imaginatively named his dangerous creation “The Persistence of Chaos.” The real kicker, however, was that the reserve for Dong’s auction was set at over $1,000,000.
What is Wannacry?
The destructive power of the six pieces of malware installed on the machine can’t be underestimated. Between them, it is estimated that they’ve caused more than $95 billion worth of damage worldwide. Guo has published information on each of them on the auction page , the numbers attached to each will blow you away:
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.
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.
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.
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.
For safety reasons, Guo built his laptop in collaboration with privately owned New York-based cybersecurity company, called DeepInstinct . Together they built a laptop that is completely isolated and air-gapped from the internet at large. The auction page also highlights that all the internet capabilities and available ports will be disabled on the machine once bidding has concluded.
The big question relating to all this is why? Why create a collection of some of the most dangerous internet viruses and malware known to man and then sell it to the highest bidder? This could literally be the plot a second-rate James Bond movie.
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To answer the obvious question, Guo cites his laptop as a work of art. He has created a catalog of historical threats, built to remind us that digital threats can have real world consequences. We shouldn’t ignore the online threats that are out there.
This is something we all know too well and so it is heartening to see an internet artist create a piece of art that is designed to instill vigilance in internet users. The big test for Guo will be whether the security credentials built into the laptop by Deep Instinct are strong enough to prevent the threats from breaking out.
Watch live video from PersistenceChaos on www.twitch.tv
Interestingly enough, according to Guo’s auction site for The Persistence of Chaos, where you can watch a livestream of the laptop just sitting there, somebody has bid on the laptop and the huge reserve has been met. It looks like somebody is going to buy the riddled laptop and all the viruses that come with it. As most of us can’t afford to outbid the current bid of $1,200,749, all we can do is hope that the winner is simply going to put the laptop in a museum and doesn’t want to crack it open and spill its nasty contents onto the internet.
