A laptop deliberately infected with six notorious strains of malware was auctioned in the US as an art project.
It was previously reported by the BBC, that one of the highest bid for the device was $1.1m. The virus-ridden laptop had malware identified as ‘WannaCry’ and ‘ILoveYou’ some of the most dangerous malware in the world.
The auction stated that the Samsung laptop’s internet connectivity will be disabled when the device is shipped to the auction winner. The 11-year-old Notebook was air-gapped, a security measure to isolate it from other networks. The project is a collaboration between the artist Guo O Dong and a New York cyber-security company called Deep Instinct.
“We came to understand this project as a kind of bestiary, a catalogue of historical threats,” Guo said.
It is illegal in the US to sell malware for the purpose of causing damage. The terms and conditions of the auction state that the laptop must be purchased “as a piece of art or for academic reasons”.
