When personal computers were new, having one in your home was a kind of hobby. Every user needed some serious technical expertise. System won’t start? Open the case, pull the expansion cards, polish their terminals with a pencil eraser, and reseat them. If that didn’t work, you could join your fellow hobbyists at a PC Users’ Group meeting and ask around. You might solve other problems by tweaking arcane settings in the CONFIG.SYS file. Fun stuff, for sure! Computers these days are no longer a hobby, just a boring commodity. Here’s a thought to spice up your life—why not get your computer infected with malware?
What if turning on your computer made it flash a warning that the government is investigating you? Or if opening your browser generated a blizzard of fun and colorful ads? Who knows, maybe your computer could be among the zombie army enlisted by a bot herder to take down a major website using a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack! Wouldn’t that be cool?
You may be surprised to learn that opening yourself to the full malware experience will take a little work. Modern operating systems and computers are too darn nanny-state protective, and just about every new computer comes with a security suite preinstalled. Here are some tips to ease you into the exciting world of malware.
