Malware

Intego’s Virus Monitoring Center has come across an odd new program. Called lose/lose, this is a kind of alien-killer game like the venerable Space Invaders, but with a new twist. As the developer describes it on his web site,

Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted.

Hmm… You play a game and it deletes files? Your files? That doesn’t sound very good.

Developer Zach Gage claims that this is part of his MFA thesis, and while that’s certainly believable, it seems an odd way to write a thesis: a game that may delete user’s files is, quite frankly, a malicious program. Gage is trying to dress this up in philosophical concepts; he told us:

I would even argue that Lose/Lose does good and not harm, as it’s part of a project bringing this kind of matter to our attention. Part of it is about examining this flaw in our reasoning. We are so afraid of technology that we can become enraged just at the idea of a dangerous piece of software, even when that software is no more dangerous than dragging your files to the trash and deleting them yourself. In a world where so much of our lives are online, shouldn’t we have passed this fear by now? If we haven’t perhaps theres a greater danger to continuing to move forward into this technological future than we’ve come to terms with. When files on your computer are more important physical possessions, the rules of the game change. Imagine if someone could remotely delete furniture from your house, food from your fridge, or work from your desk? Wouldn’t you want to know even the basics of how that system worked before you integrated it so heavily into your life?

High-concept art is nothing new, but applying that to malicious computer programs certainly is. While the program has even been part of an Australian digital art exhibit, that doesn’t make it any better.

Malware as art could be fine in an exhibit, but releasing it in the wild is risky. Granted, the program has clear warnings about what it will do, both on pages where it can be downloaded, and on the game’s splash screen, but this will simply show that those who don’t read – or, perhaps, whose native languages are not English – may end up losing valuable files.

Intego is considering this as malware, with the name OSX/LoserGame, and VirusBarrier X5 with virus definitions dated October 28, 2009 or later will delete this game. If you see it, don’t try playing it, unless you really want to lose files.