Laptop infected with six most dangerous viruses up for auction for over $1 million

In a first, a man has put a laptop infected with six of the world’s most dangerous viruses up for auction, and that too for a whopping over $1 million.

An internet artist Guo O Dong created a piece of art called ‘The Persistence of Chaos’ – an ordinary laptop filled with six of the world’s most dangerous pieces of malware able to cause serious havoc. The creator says the laptop is totally safe, as long as one doesn’t connect it to their Wi-Fi or plug in a USB.

The laptop is a 10.2-inch Samsung NC10-14GB and Dong told The Verge that the intention to make it 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,” said Dong. “Weaponized viruses that affect power grids or public infrastructure can cause direct harm.”

The six viruses were chosen for the magnitude of economic damage they have caused. They include the ILOVEYOU virus, a computer bug from 2000 that often appeared as a ‘love letter’ attached to emails; and WannaCry, a ransomware attack that shut down computers in hospitals and factories around the world back in 2017.

Dong claimed that WannaCry is the perfect example of how digital attacks can have physical consequences. “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,” he continued. Dong estimated that in total, the six viruses present on the laptop caused economic damage worth $95 billion.

The virus-affected laptop is currently being auctioned online and is currently priced above $1.2 million. Dong believes that he likes to think of this artwork as a ‘kind of bestiary – a catalogue of historical threats’.

Dong also clarified that he’s taken precautions to prevent the laptop’s contents from spreading. “The piece is isolated and airgapped to prevent against spread of the malware,” read the auction page, as per Mashable.