An old laptop that has six of the most dangerous malware to have ever been developed is on sale if you can pay $1 million. The said laptop is a Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-inch Blue Notebook from 2008. It is a piece of art that has been named The Persistence of Chaos by an Internet artist Guo O Dong.
The Persistence of Chaos is a piece of art that is meant to highlight the fact that viruses can cause real harm. According to Guo O Dong, ‘We have this fantasy that things that happen in computers can’t actually affect us, but this is absurd. Weaponized viruses that affect power grids or public infrastructure can cause direct harm.’
The malwares that have been used in The Persistence of Chaos include ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, SoBig, WannaCry, DarkTequila, and BlackEnergy. Every single one of these viruses has caused almost billions in terms of damages. Can you believe that? Billions!
For example, ILOVEYOU caused $15 billion as a total in damages. About $5.5 billion in damages were caused during the very first week. On the other hand, MyDoom caused a total of $38 billion while SoBig caused $37 billion in damages. However, the expensive costs are the ones that can’t be measured in monetary terms.
Guo O Dong said, ‘WannaCry … caused the [UK’s National Health Service] the equivalent of $100 million in damages and led to the cancellation of tens of thousands of doctors’ appointments. It is not a leap to say this caused significant human harm, though it might be hard to pinpoint the effects exactly down to the patient.’
The artwork, The Persistence of Chaos, was commissioned by DeepInstict – a cybersecurity firm. As of right now, it is being live-streamed along with the increasing price. Do check it out and let us know what you think of it!
Update: After a multi-day online auction, The Persistence of Chaos ultimately sold for $1,345,000.