Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Basically Homeless
Topics: Technology, YouTube
Mia Williams
A man downloaded 1,000 viruses on his laptop to test which antivirus software was the most effective.
YouTuber Nicholas Zetta - known as Basically Homeless on the platform - pulled a move that is quite literally every hacker's dream.
Instead of avoiding every virus possible like we all try and do day-to-day, he has taken a rather different approach.
Phishing scams, dodgy text messages and emails, the list of how hackers try and retrieve our personal information is endless.
Advert
But what would happen if you ignored all the fake links, and actually went out of your way to directly download all of the viruses?
Well, that’s exactly what Nicholas did, he pretty much downloaded every virus he could get his hands on.
He documented the process in an entertaining video for his YouTube channel, that starts with an explanation of his aim - to see which antivirus was best in the least scientific way possible.
The process wasn’t at all complicated, it essentially consisted of clicking on as many suspicious looking websites and links as possible.
And it didn’t take long for his laptop to be completely riddled with adverts, butterflies flying across the screen and a very strange version of Minecraft.
This also led him to a website that had a directory of malware viruses that were all set and ready to be downloaded - meaning he could get the whole lot in one go.
It involved a lot of clicking ‘yes’ on boxes without looking at what he was downloading.
This actually meant he was agreeing to grant access to his computer's systems, which would normally be a big no-go.
Something which he found disturbing, was how many of these pop-up ads and dodgy sites were aimed at younger people, enticing them in with ‘hack packages’ for games like Fortnite and Roblox.
Having downloaded a few hundred viruses, he decided to put his antivirus programs to the test.
From Norton to McAfee and Bitdefender to Kaspersky, he installed a host of antivirus software in a bid to try and protect his device.
After scanning his computer for a few moments, it became clear that his laptop was almost a write-off.
But astonishingly, some of the programs found literally no malware.
The better programs, however, were able to find hundreds of threats, and were However, in true YouTube style, he promised the process of software deep-cleaning would be documented in another video on his channel.