Getting a virus is no fun at all. Especially the kind that gives you genital warts. Ahem. But computer viruses can be just as painful, at the very least causing great inconvenience to you and the folks in your email contacts list, and at worst capable of siphoning all of a computer’s private data and passwords, and holding invaluable files for ransom. Keyboard warriors everywhere are constantly thinking up cunning ways to exploit security flaws and bypass anti-virus software, and so there’s always new worm, trojan horse or whatever, spreading like cold sores at Christmas and wreaking havoc throughout cyberspace.
No shortage of material then for Computer Virus Catalog: An Illustrated Guide to the Worst Computer Viruses in History. Dutch creative sort Bas van de Poel invited a guest list of 20 artists to interpret one of the 20 most dastardly instances of infectious malware of the past; the resulting imagery has been paired with a short description of the method and purpose of infection on the project website, so it’s as educational as it is entertaining. Artists involved include HORT, Jay Wright and Joost & Nick, with viruses ranging from the annoying email replicator activated by opening a pic of tennis babe Anna Kournikova, to the downright shitty DOS virus Implant which wipes your hard drive just for LOLs. Get that anti-virus software updated pronto!
LSD by
Clay Hickson
Sircam by
Alyar Aynetchi
Madman by
Jay Wright
Techno by
Joost & Nick
Marburg
by HORT
Ika-Tako by
Saïd Kinos
