In January 1990, an investigation began into a new cybercrime. The ransomware program was contained on floppy disks signed «AIDS Information — Introductory Diskette 2.0».
The first ransomware was developed by American biologist, Dr. Joseph Lewis Andrew Popp Jr. About 20,000 copies of the program were distributed among subscribers of PC Business World magazine, various mailing lists, and even delegates of the World Health Organization at an AIDS conference.
The choice of attack targets was very narrow, and the delivery method used people’s fear at the time of the new virus. Computer viruses then were not very widespread, and software for extorting money from victims appeared for the first time.
Compared to modern attacks, this one seems like a harmless joke: it only encrypted the names of files, not the files themselves. John Sutcliffe and Jim Bates developed effective countermeasures — AIDSOUT for removal and AIDSCLEAR for checking hidden directories, combined into the utility CLEARAID. Unfortunately, some victims suffered serious financial losses and lost data. An Italian health organization lost a colossal 10 years of research due to the attack.
Dr. Popp was not only the most effective cybercriminal at the time — he was also mentally ill. After several arrests and extraditions, doctors concluded that the 41-year-old man was mentally unfit to stand trial. A London psychiatrist witnessed extremely bizarre behavior: the suspect wore condoms on his nose, carried a cardboard box with him, and demonstrated other oddities, which moved him from prison to the London Maudsley Hospital.
Despite this, it was a complex and targeted attack that seems too complicated for someone of unsound mind. It caused not too significant damages amounting to 10,000 pounds sterling — or about 31,794 pounds or $38,600 today, excluding associated costs.
Source: Tom`s Hardware
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