Pretty much anything qualifies as ‘art’ these days – and that apparently includes an old Windows XP laptop that is infested with 6 of the world’s most dangerous computer viruses.

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The laptop has just sold for £1 million ($1.3 million) at auction – a fraction of the total damages done by the viruses it contains, which crippled 74 countries at an estimated total cost of £74.4 billion.

The six viruses include the famous WannaCry ransomware that hit the NHS in 2017, as well as ILOVEYOU, MyDoom, DarkTequila, SoBig and Blackenergy. All very spooky virus names indeed.

These viruses are so dangerous that the Windows laptop they infest has been quarantined in an ‘air-gapped’ environment, similar to the air gap used in plumbing to maintain water quality.

The art piece, known as the ‘Persistence of Chaos’, was created by artist Guo O Dong in collaboration with cybersecurity company Deep Instinct to keep the artwork safe.

An interesting and unique piece of kit for sure but I can’t help but think the artist Guo O Dong has pulled off the hustle of the century here. I mean all he did was buy an old laptop, infect it with 6 of the world’s worst computer viruses, and then sold it as ‘art’ for £1 million. I’m pretty sure I could have done the same thing if I’d kept my old childhood computer which was ram packed full of viruses downloaded from the likes of Napster and Limewire.

If only we all had the foresight that Guo O Dong had, those ancient computers we used to play Solitaire and Minesweeper on could have just netted us a cool million. We’d all be living life in our super yachts and partying on private islands right now. Alas, he had the lightbulb moment that eluded us all. Fair play to him.

For the ‘LeakerLocker’ ransomware you definitely want to avoid (and which is curiously missing from this laptop’s list of tech diseases), click HERE.