An Artist's History of Computer Viruses and Malware

< Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3-6pm ET >
< Todd Anderson >
< [email protected] >
< toddwords on Discord >
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since there have been computers there have been programs lurking surreptitiously in the background, ready to exploit them. This will be a survey course covering a history of computational skullduggery from the trojan horses of the Limewire-era, to internet-crippling botnets made up of thousands of unsecured smart fridges, to cyberweapons deployed by nation-states to damage each other's physical infrastructure. As we explore these topics we will respond critically and creatively to what the nefarious side of computation can teach us about our increasingly digital lives.

This syllabus is subject to change

Assignments

Weekly responses: Each week, in addition to readings/other media to consume, you will be asked to create something connected to the week's topic. Sometimes this will be a simple written response to readings, sometimes a short paper, sometimes something more creative that will ask you to bring in your skills/interests from outside the class. These prompts will have a black background and can be turned in in-class the next week

Final Anthology: At the end of the class we'll be putting together a web-based anthology of writings and artworks created through the class. More details will be shared later in the class, but throughout be thinking about what you might like to share.

A Quick Note on Anti-social Behavior and Consent

In this class we will be looking at a lot of malware in a not entirely negative light. This does not mean that anti-social behavior such as installing software on a classmates computer without their consent, trying to get access to someone's accounts, trying to hack someone's machine etc will be considered "cool" or acceptable behavior. In this class we will only explore risky or boundary-pushing software art with the informed consent of the person installing it on their machine. Your classmates in this class are your fellow researchers and collaborators and are to be treated with the utmost kindness and respect. Failure to do so will result in removal from the class.

Week 1: Introduction

< 10/4 | 10/6 >

Class:SFPC Presentation, Introduce syllabus, BBS Era
Lab: Terminal
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 2: The First Viruses (1971-1988)

< 10/11 | 10/13 >

Class: Mainframe/BBS viruses, Anatomy of a virus
Lab: Basic shell scripting / SSH
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 3: Detourning the Desktop

< 10/18 | 10/20 >

Class:Guest Lecture From Herdimas Anggara
Lab: Bookmarklets, Intro to JS
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 4: Spam

< 10/25 | 10/27 >

Class: History of spam, botnet economics
Lab: Chrome Extensions (examples)
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 5: Botnets

< 11/1 | 11/3 >

Class: Distributed Denial of Service, Network protocol
Lab: Consensual Botnet Simulator with HitchHiker
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 6: Hacktivism, Sabotage and Tactical Art

< 11/8 | 11/10 >

Class: Website Interventions, Public Space on the Internet
Lab: Chrome Extensions 2
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 7: Ransomware

< 11/15 | 11/17 >

Class: Cryptolocker, WannaCry, Ransom economies
Lab: Encryption workshop
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 8: Stuxnet, Viruses go Physical

< 11/22 (No Thursday Class) >

Class:Cyberwar, Viruses targeting physical infrastructure
Lab: Remote hardware hacking
Homework:

Week 9: Malware Art

< 11/29 | 12/1 >

Class: Elements of malware in art
Lab: Group work session and office hours
For Next Week:

Additional Things to Check Out:

Week 10: Final Project Presentations

< 12/6 | 12/8 >