Samsung NC (notebook)

2019: The notebook stuffed with viruses is sold for $1 million by an auction

At the end of May, 2019 the notebook intentionally infected with six known viruses, including WannaCry and ILoveYou was sold in the USA for $1 million by an auction as the art project.

The Odinnadtstiletny Samsung NC notebook was infected with six types of the most known malware:

• WannaCry (virus racketeer which affected National medical authorities of Great Britain in 2017);
• ILoveYou (which is released in 2000 a virus which infected 50 million computers in two weeks, including the equipment of CIA, Pentagon and British parliament);
• MyDoom (quickly extending mail worm of Windows of 2004 similar to the error message);
• SoBig;
• DarkTequila (the harmful program keylogger intended for theft of financial data and credentials for login);
• BlackEnergy (the virus used for an attack to power supply system of Ukraine in 2016).

The notebook intentionally infected with six known viruses, including WannaCry and ILoveYou was sold in the USA for $1 million by an auction as the art project

Organizers of an auction said that the notebook will be switched-off from the Internet when the device is delivered to the winner. At an auction as the security measure allowing to isolate it from other networks around the portable computer the air gap was left.

In the USA it is forbidden to sell malware for the purpose of damnification therefore conditions of an auction say that the notebook should be purchased "as the work of art or for the academic reasons". The project represents cooperation between the artist Guo About Dong (Guo O Dong) and the New York company on cyber security of Deep Instinct. Guo About Drng calls the project some kind of "bestiary", the directory of threats of an IT era in historical aspect.

The auction struck some experts in cyber security. According to them why to pay one million dollars if it is possible just to connect the notebook without antivirus software in the Internet for several days. The result will be the same, experts consider.^[1]

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