Imagine an IT specialist named Elias who finds an old, unlabeled backup drive. Among the standard folders is a tiny file named 23096.rar . It’s only —smaller than a single digital photo.

: The file uses "recursive compression." Inside the first RAR file are 10 more; inside each of those are 10 more, and so on.

"23096.rar" is typically associated with a notorious (or "zip bomb") —a malicious archive file designed to crash a system or exhaust its resources when opened.

Within seconds, his workstation begins to howl. The cooling fans spin at maximum velocity, and the mouse cursor freezes. He checks his server monitor from another laptop and watches in horror: his 2TB Solid State Drive is being devoured at a rate of gigabytes per second.

: At the bottom layer are massive files filled with repetitive data (like zeros), which compress incredibly well but expand to fill every bit of available storage.