The Internet Archive has set up a museum for computer viruses, the Malware Museum exhibits computer viruses of decades past in complete safety.
The Malware Museum features viruses from the 80s and 90s that were designed to attack devices equipped with MS-DOS. These viruses were often programmed to overwrite files or format hard drives, and they could be programmed to attack at random.
“I suppose many old-school virus writers were using their viruses as a means of expression. That’s why we get all these displays of animations, sound, and pictures,”
Mikko Hypponen, the chief research officer at Finnish security company F-Secure who teamed up with the Internet Archive for the project, told the Kernel.
“Some would call it art.”
According to Hypponen, the viruses of years gone by were often crafted by hackers who were more interested in having fun than in making money—a far cry from those that victims are likely to encounter today.
Via: PSFK
