Anyone today can own a portable computer, i.e. a laptop. If you have the money for it, you can own one. These laptops can go up to USD$1,500 and the least could be around USD$200. Well! the brand, specifications, usage for the laptop, among other factors matter.
We won’t dive into that much.
Asides from customized laptops like the; MJ’s Swarovski and Diamond Studded notebook (USD$3.5M), or Luvaglio (USD$1M) which cost insane price tags, there’s an on-going online auction of a laptop at now USD$1.2M (roughly UGX4.6 billion) with roughly five hours left for the final bid.
Dubbed The Persistence of Chaos is not customized in anyways to be at a priced auction of USD$1.2M. It’s a 2008 Samsung NC10-14GB 10.2-inch laptop currently running Windows XP (Service Pack 3).
The Persistence of Chaos is loaded with six most destructive pieces of malware — which according to some reports have caused nearly USD$100 billion in damages globally. The six malwares include; ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, SoBig, WannaCry, DarkTequila, and BlackEnergy.
It is believed by some experts that some of these malware are still floating online.
The laptop is currently isolated and air-gapped. This is a network security measure taken to prevent the malwares from escaping and spread elsewhere.
Created by internet artist Guo O Dong, the laptop is perfectly safe — as long you don’t connect to your Wi-Fi or plug in a USB.
Guo O Dong told The Verge, “The intention behind the laptop was to make physical the abstract threats posed by the digital world.”
“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,” said Guo.
With just a five hours left for the auction of the end, it’ll be interesting to see how much the world’s most dangerous laptop will be priced.[related-posts]
THE MALWARES
ILOVEYOU
Distributed via email and file sharing, the malware has affected over 500,000+ systems and caused USD$15 billion in damages total.
MyDoom
Commissioned by Russian e-mail spammers, MyDoom was one of the fastest spreading worms. It’s projected that this virus caused USD$38 billion 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 USD$37 billion in damages and affected hundreds of thousands of PCs.
WannaCry
This was a ransomware cryptoworm that set up backdoors on systems affecting over 200,000+ computers across 150 countries. The malware caused U.K’s NHS (National Health Service) USD$100 million in damages with further totals accumulating close to USD$4 billion.
DarkTequila
A sophisticated and evasive piece of malware that targeted users mainly in Latin America. It stole bank credentials and corporate data even while offline costing millions in damages.
BlackEnergy
BlackEnergy was used in a cyberattack that prompted a large-scale blackout in Ukraine in December 2015.