How much would you pay for a laptop? $600? $700? $1500? Or maybe up to some $4000 for the beastliest of powerful gaming rigs and what not. But what if I told you that the world’s 2nd most expensive laptop right now, is an old Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2″ Notebook? In addition, what if I told you it’s full of viruses… And not just your regular everyday viruses, but the most dangerous ones throughout history that have caused over $95 billion damage?
Strange, right? Well, this laptop is apparently a work of art. Dubbed as “The Persistence of Chaos“, this laptop contains the six deadliest computer viruses known to mankind. The artist behind this work of “genius” is a Chinese artist, Guo O Dong. And he collaborated with Deep Instinct, a cyber security firm. The firm ensured all safety protocols necessary to prevent the virus from spreading, and so, the viruses reside in their forever home, right now. Artists do strange things, and Dong explained that he created this piece to see how the world responds to and values the impact of malware. Right now, this one is up for auction, and the current bid resides at slightly over $1.2 million!
Of course, the ones who’re bidding must really be crazy, or hate themselves. But it’s their money. We’re not judging. However, the laptop is air-gapped to prevent it from spreading, and Deep Instinct believes it is impossible to breach. Also, they plan to disable all the ports after the auction ends…so that the viruses have no way of escaping!
Six Deadly Sins
What are these deadliest viruses in this The Persistence of Chaos, you may ask? Here they are in all their glory:
ILOVEYOU is the first malware, which first showed up in 2000 and spread to the masses via email. It came in the form of a love letter attachment, that when clicked on, sent similar messages to your contact list. Also, opening it meant it would overwrite random files on your computer. It affected over 500000 systems and did about $15 billion worth damage.
SoBig showed up in 2003, as a worm and a Trojan virus that circulated via email spam. This malware could copy files, email itself to others and damage your computer software / hardware components. It remains the second fastest spreading virus till date, doing about $37 billion in damages to hundreds of thousands of computers
MyDoom appeared in 2004, and became the fastest spreading malware. It sent junk emails through infected computers, with the text “andy, I’m just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry”. And by conducting some DDoS attacks, it did a damage of $38 billion!
BlackEnergy was discovered in 2007 and remained in operation for the longest amount of time until 2015. It caused a massive cyber attack that caused a large-scale blackout in Ukraine in December 2015. Some say it was one of the most sophisticated malware.
DarkTequilla appeared in 2013, and with its sophisticated and evasive nature, targeted users in Latin America. It stole personal and corporate data including bank credentials, even when offline. It spread through spear phishing and infected USB Flash drives, and did hundreds of millions of damage.
WannaCry is probably the most well known, as it took place in 2017, as a global attack. It infected over 200000 computers from around 150 countries, causing the National Health Service in the US of $100 million damage and over $4 billion damage to the public. The attackers demanded ransom in BitCoin!
The Persistence of Chaos brought the deadliest computer viruses ever together in a single computer. What could go wrong, right? And at its current bidding, this becomes the second most expensive laptop in the world. Strangely enough, other expensive laptops comprise of those with golden chassis and diamond-crested power button! However, this…here, is totally something else!
