With the recent ransomware attacks, one begins to ponder when exactly these attacks unleash havoc on businesses and individuals. You will be surprised to know that the first ransomware attack happened in 1989, a time when internet was not even commercialized, Windows 95 had not released and Steve Jobs was working as a fired Apple employee.
So What Happened?
In 1989, an individual named Joseph Popp, a PhD biologist from Harvard scattered 20,000 floppy diskettes via a fictional business entity in almost 100 countries to institutions and individuals belonging to the medical and research field. The diskettes were marketed as containing a computer program that could help users ascertain their possibility of contracting AIDS.
Back then awareness about AIDS wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Many people did not know the risks, symptoms and details related to AIDS and many even considered it to spread through a single physical touch.
Mr. Joseph thus exploited people’s lack of knowledge and baited them to run the diskettes on their computers. After running them, the diskettes ran a program related to HIV/AIDS. However, in the background a ransomware began its operation and appeared to the users after they opened their computers 90 times. The ransomware proceeded to encrypt users’ files and demanded a ransom from $180 to $400. Users were instructed to send money to an address in Panama via a PO Box.
The ransom amount may not seem much in today’s world but back then, it was considered a great amount. Moreover, since it was the first attack of its kind, panic had set in and many people feared the loss of their data.
Since there were almost non-existent cybercrime laws back in 1989, hence the victims as well as law enforcement agencies were clueless. In the ensuring chaos, massive data was lost, including some crucial research material on HIV/AIDS that could have helped the world deal with the health issue today.
Ransomware removal experts say that the attack inspired many of today’s cybercriminals to build more advanced ransomware campaigns, crippling many enterprises and individuals on a daily basis. Joseph Popp just didn’t harm a few individuals of an industry; he sowed the seed that went on to incur damages worth billions.
