For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, his screen flickered violently. A barrage of command prompt windows opened and closed in rapid succession. Leo frantically tried to move his mouse, but the cursor was frozen. A massive red window locked his screen with a message in broken English: "Your files are now encrypted. Pay 0.1 Bitcoin to recover."

He had found the link on a shady, neon-colored forum after digging through dozens of dead links. The site was plastered with flashing pop-up ads claiming his computer was infected and counting down timers that pressured him to click. Leo knew better than to click the bait, but his desire to watch his favorite show without interruptions pushed him to take the risk.

He clicked the final download button. Instantly, his browser flagged the file with a bright red warning label: "This type of file can harm your device. Do you want to keep it anyway?" Leo hesitated, his finger hovering over the mouse. He thought about the forum comments praising the Lite version for being lightweight and fast. Ignoring the warning, he clicked keep and ran the installer.