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This is what some the world’s largest banks of malware look like stacked as hard drives
Malware research group vx-underground, which says it has the largest collection of malware source code, said in a post on X that its archive of data amounts to about 30 terabytes.
A reply by Bernardo Quintero, founder of VirusTotal, an online service that scans files for malware across multiple antivirus engines at once, said his service has about 31 petabytes of malware samples that users have contributed to date. (A petabyte is ~1,000-times larger than a terabyte.)
In both cases, that’s a lot of data. For context, cybersecurity companies, AI researchers, and threat intelligence firms treat repositories like these as critical for training detection models and understanding how attacks evolve. But this had us wondering: What would these enormous datasets actually look like stacked as hard drives one on top of the other and side-by-side? And how would they compare to, say, the Eiffel Tower?
Someone in our newsroom asked an AI chatbot this question, and it got it incredibly wrong.
Instead, we did some rough back-of-a-napkin math to figure out how tall these data banks would be. Since vx-underground and VirusTotal both have “about” that much data each, “about” is good enough for us in this case.
Let’s say we’re using 1 terabyte capacity internal hard drives, since these are generally designed to be the same physical size to fit inside any computer. These standardized 3.5-inch internal hard drives are 1 inch in height, which for the sake of stacking one on top of the other is really what we want to know here.
We’re also assuming that the hard drives we’re using in this example are exactly 1 terabyte, because in reality the total usable file capacity of a hard drive is generally somewhat less.
Using this online conversion tool, it looks like vx-underground’s 30 terabytes of malware data could fill 30 hard drives stacked on top of one another, reaching 30 inches, or about 2.5 feet tall.
For reference, this reporter is 6 feet tall. (See visual below, and yes, terrible opsec, I know.)
With that same logic, VirusTotal’s 31 petabytes of submitted data would fill 31,744 hard drives, which stacked on top of another would reach about 2,645 feet.
The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is slightly taller at 2,722 feet.
The Eiffel Tower is 1,083 feet tall. By that logic, VirusTotal has about two-and-a-half Eiffel Towers’ worth of data.
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The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Niger State has dragged four opposition parties before the Federal High Court in Minna, seeking to stop their candidates from participating in the 2027 general elections over alleged breaches of the Electoral Act, 2026.
The suit is targeting candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Social Democratic Party, SDP, Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, and African Democratic Congress, ADC, who reportedly defected from the APC after losing its May 2026 primary elections.
Those affected include PDP governorship candidate, Mohammed Mamman Nami; SDP governorship candidate, Mohammed Ndarani Mohammed; and ADC deputy governorship candidate, Musa Mamman.
Also listed are Sadiq Mohammed Rabiu and Peter Jiya, contesting the Niger South Senatorial seat for the NDC and PDP respectively, alongside several NDC candidates for the House of Representatives and Niger State House of Assembly.
The APC, in an originating summons marked FHC/MN/2026, is challenging the validity of their nominations, arguing that they were not registered members of the parties that eventually nominated them when the statutory membership registration window closed.
The party's case, as contained in an affidavit sworn to by its state chairman, Aminu Musa Bobi, is that the politicians remained APC members between April 21 and May 10, 2026, when political parties were required to submit their digital membership registers to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to the APC, the affected politicians only moved to the opposition parties after participating in and losing the ruling party's primaries in May.
It argued that their absence from the membership registers submitted by the new parties disqualified them from seeking elective positions on those platforms.
The party is relying on Section 77 of the Electoral Act, 2026, particularly subsections (5) and (7), which it says restrict participation in party primaries to persons whose names appear in the membership registers submitted to INEC.
The legal challenge also questions INEC's decision to publish the candidates' names on October 10, followed by a press release on October 13, despite what the APC described as their failure to meet the statutory requirements.
In its written address, the party's legal team, comprising six Senior Advocates of Nigeria, also invoked the September 24, 2026 Supreme Court judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party & Ors, arguing that the electoral commission failed to apply the ruling consistently in Niger State.
The APC alleged that INEC had acted on the Supreme Court's position in governorship contests in other states but failed to similarly address the eligibility of affected governorship and legislative candidates in Niger.
It wants the court to declare the candidates ineligible, nullify INEC's publication of their names and compel the commission to remove them from the list of candidates for the 2027 elections.
The party is also seeking an order preventing INEC from recognising the affected politicians or including their names on ballot papers.
The case is yet to be assigned a hearing date.
News
Payment Of $100,000 To Falcons Is Another Demonstration Of President Tinubu’s Commitment To Rewarding Sporting Excellence – Kola Daniel
The federal government’s payment of $100,000 promised each player in Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons has been described as ‘another demonstration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment towards rewarding sporting excellence’ in the country.
Sports247 reports that this declaration came from the National Sports Commission (NSC) director-general, Honourable Bukola Olopade’s special assistant media, Kola Daniel, while providing details of the disbursements.
He pointed out that the development is a fulfilment of the president’s rewards that were announced after the Falcons won the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), which was a record-extending and historic tenth continental title for the team.
The DG’s spokesman further disclosed that the Falcons’ players have started receiving about ₦140m each, representing an equivalent of the $100,000 reward promised by Tinubu after the team staged a remarkable comeback to defeat hosts Morocco 3-2 in the final in July 2025.
“The payment is another demonstration of President Tinubu’s commitment to rewarding sporting excellence and motivating Nigerian athletes to achieve greater success on the international stage.
“Since assuming office, President Tinubu has been a breath of fresh air for Nigerian sports, with his support extending beyond the Super Falcons to other national teams.
“The President had similarly promised and delivered $100,000 rewards to members of D’Tigress following their triumph at the 2025 FIBA Women’s AfroBasket, where Nigeria secured a fifth consecutive continental title.
“The Commission commends President Tinubu for his consistent support for Nigerian athletes and for demonstrating that sporting excellence deserves tangible recognition,” Daniel stated in a press release.
He added that President Tinubu’s commitment towards rewarding sporting excellence has also strengthened effort, confidence and patriotic zeal among Nigerian athletes and administrators, while encouraging a culture of accountability and national pride.
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