The Internet Archive (archive.org) has now added a special section - like a museum - where it provides a historical look at how malware began and evolved over time.
Archive.org is the same service where you can find the extremely useful Wayback Machine, which allows users to browse older versions of certain areas of the Internet and see how they have evolved over time.
Curated by Mikko Hypponen, F-Secure's Chief Research Officer, the "malware museum" aims to document the earliest attempts to infect users' computers and destroy their networks.
In the project (malware museum) there are only viruses from the 80s and 90s and it has only 79 entries, but they are increasing day by day.
All entries are DOS viruses and run inside the DOSBox game emulator. To prevent any damage, Mr. Hypponen has removed most of the destructive capabilities of these viruses so that users can safely download them to their computers and take a look at their inner workings.
Compared to today's malware that does its best to stay hidden and specializes only in stealing valuable information, old-school viruses were sometimes revealing, with the potential to destroy computers and of course, an art form, at the same time, showing cool animations and playing catchy 8-bit music.
While, for most of us, the malware museum displays a piece of the software world that we rarely interact with, for some security researchers, a small tear may appear in the corner of their eyes, out of emotion!
