It is a weapon of mass destruction, but its creator considers it a piece of art. This is a second-hand laptop Samsung NC10 that went on sale in 2008 and comes with Windows XP inside. Windows XP is not the only thing that is running on this laptop, it is also six of the most dangerous malware in the history of the Internet and that together have caused damages of more than 95,000 thousand dollars to the technology industry.

The artist Guo O Dong is responsible for this “piece of art”. It is a laptop infected with some of the most important viruses known to date. According to the artist, it is so dangerous that he has decided to “isolate” him to prevent the malware inside him from expanding. It can be viewed in direct streaming via Twitch:

Six different malware to cause chaos

‘The Persistence of Chaos’ is the name given to this laptop and the work as a whole. Chaos is what it can cause if it is connected to any network or external device. And is that some of the malware with which it is infected able to expand to other devices automatically as soon as the laptop is connected to an external or internal network? It is in a way the representation of a biological weapon in the digital world.

The six viruses that the laptop contains are the following:

• ILOVEYOU: One of the first computer worms, in May 2000 affected more than 50 million computers causing damage of more than 5.5 billion dollars.
• WannaCry: A ransowmware that touched us fully affecting Telefónica and expanded to more than 150 countries, its consequences were enromes even later. It has not been completely finished with him.
• MyDoom: The fastest computer worm spread by email. It is estimated that only this malware caused about 35 billion dollars in damages.
• SoBig: Affected millions of Windows computers in August 2003.
• DarkTequila: It was used especially in Latin America for the purpose of obtaining financial information.
• BlackEnergy: In December 2015 this malware caused a blackout in Ukraine infecting different electricity companies in the country. The malware was detected for the first time in 2008.

More than 1.2 million dollars for him and assuming the legal consequences

The computer was infected/created by the cybersecurity company Deep Instinct and is currently being auctioned to be sold to the highest bidder. At the moment it goes for more than 1.2 million dollars. Of course, we must bear in mind that it is a computer with malware and the sale of malware as such is illegal in the United States, which is where it is auctioned. As a condition, the buyer must sign a document admitting that he buys “a piece of art” and not malware. There are a good handful of more rules to fulfil for the purchase of the laptop.