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Online Museum Displays Decades of Malware (thestack.com)

Posted by yaelk on from the looking-for-malware dept.

An anonymous reader writes: archive.org has launched a Museum of Malware, which devotes itself to a historical look at DOS-based viruses of the 1980s and 1990s, and gives viewers the opportunity to run the viruses in a DOS game emulator, and to download 'neutered' versions of the code. With an estimated 50,000 DOS-based viruses in existence by the year 2000, the Malware Museum's 65 examples should be seen as representative of an annoying, but more innocent era of digital vandalism.

3 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Obilgatory XKCD by jfdavis668 · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/350/

    1. Re:Obilgatory XKCD by Psicopatico · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just ask, it's already done.
      Check http://www.viruszoo.com/
      (And don't forget to check the FAQ, which clearly references xkcd.)

      To be honest, TFA references a MS-DOS era scenario, which is a little different.

      --
      Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
  2. The Simpsons have already done it by ThePTPguy · · Score: 2

    Nice trip down the memory lane. MkS_Vir, developed by the late Marek Sell, used to be the de facto standard antivirus software used in Poland for many years in the DOS days. I'm not sure if it's been ever exported anywhere outside Poland. So MkS_Vir contained a collection of amusing neutered virus demos the user could play from the UI. I recall many of the ones on display in the Malware Museum. MkS_Vir has had this built-in collection since at least 1993 and it kept growing. It also contained technical descriptions of some of the clever viruses' method of operation... and even a "catalog" of viruses found in Poland. You used to get monthly updates sent to you on floppies to your mailbox (the metal thing with a flap). Nobody used the term "malware" back then, and these viruses were written by well-versed Assembly programmers, mostly for fun, unlike today when it's mostly for profit, political or monetary.