First, it was a subtle lag. Then, his mouse began to drift on its own. He tried to save his progress, but the "Save" button was grayed out. Suddenly, his screen flickered, and a command prompt window spiraled into existence, lines of green code scrolling too fast to read.
By morning, Elias didn't have a finished audio project. Instead, he had a locked hard drive and a ransom note demanding Bitcoin. The "free download" had delivered a payload of ransomware that encrypted his entire portfolio—years of work vanished for the sake of a few saved dollars.
He sat in the glow of his compromised monitor, realizing that the "registration code" wasn't a key to a program, but a key for a thief to enter his digital home.
