This is what some of the world’s largest banks of malware look like stacked as hard drives

The malware research organization vx-underground, renowned for possessing one of the largest archives of malware source code, recently revealed that their collection totals approximately 30 terabytes of data. In a conversation on the platform X, Bernardo Quintero, the founder of VirusTotal—an online service that scans files for malware across various antivirus tools—disclosed that their repository has grown to an astounding 31 petabytes, which is roughly 1,000 times larger than a terabyte. These substantial data troves are invaluable to cybersecurity experts, AI researchers, and threat intelligence specialists, as they serve as essential resources for developing detection models and comprehending the evolution of cyber threats. This led to an intriguing question: How would these massive datasets appear if visualized as stacked hard drives? To explore this, we turned to some basic calculations. vx-underground's 30 terabytes could be represented by 30 standard 1-terabyte hard drives, stacked vertically to reach a height of 30 inches, or about 2.5 feet. For comparison, the average height of an adult is around 6 feet. Meanwhile, VirusTotal's impressive 31 petabytes would equate to around 31,744 hard drives, which when stacked, would soar to approximately 2,645 feet. To put that into perspective, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world, stands at 2,722 feet, while the Eiffel Tower measures 1,083 feet tall. This means that VirusTotal has amassed a data collection equivalent to about two and a half Eiffel Towers, showcasing the staggering scale of malware information being analyzed today.