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Watch This Malware Turn a Computer into a Digital Hellscape

”There are no words.”

If you're ever looking to induce a panic attack, look no further than danooct1's YouTube channel.

As something of a hands-on, DIY answer to the Internet Archive's malware museum, the proprietor of channel has been testing out retro computer viruses for years to give his viewers a taste of what it was like to get pwned by the malware of yore. Every so often he'll run viewer-made malware, which typically blurs the line between digital art and sadistic fan mail.

The eighth and latest segment in his viewer-made malware series involves a Trojan called MEMZ created by a user called Leurak. The Trojan—a type of malware which infects a computer by masquerading as a non-malicious program—begins its execution by opening up a note informing the victim that their computer "has been fucked by the MEMZ Trojan" and that any attempt to kill the Trojan will cause their "system to be destroyed instantly.

For the next five minutes or so the Trojan's execution gets increasingly chaotic. It begins innocuously enough by opening web pages for Club Penguin and Google searches on topics like "how to buy weed," but things start getting weird when the screen starts inverting its colors to a soundtrack composed of Windows XP error pings. At this point the Trojan begins taking dozens of screenshots to create a tunneling effect, which prompts danooct1 to attempt to restart his computer.

As promised by the Trojan's original note, the computer was totaled and now is good for nothing besides running an animation of the Nyan cat. Yet rather than evoking cries of anguish and despair from danocct1, the Trojan seems to have won his admiration:

"This is so cool," he said. "There are no words."