The bizarre story of the inventor of ransomware

Summary

In 1989 Eddy Willems was checking floppy discs to be distributed at a conference. The article covers what happened next as follows:

• The discs contained medical research.
• A few days later, his computer locked.
• A message appeared demanding $189.00 be sent to an account in Panama, or he would lose all of his data.
• Willems knew how to extract data from his computer without paying a ransom.
• Some medical researchers lost a lot of work.
• Willems said the consequences of this attack were severe.
• The floppy discs had been sent to addresses obtained from a mailing list. Ransomware* attack traced to Joseph Popp, a research scientist.
• Popp was arrested and charged with blackmail.

US Justice Department recently said 2020 was 'the worst year to date for ransomware attacks.'

* Ransomware is a type of malware program that infects, locks or takes control of a system and demands ransom to undo it. 

References

• May 2021 ZDNet Ransomware: 'We won't pay ransom,' says Ireland after attack on health service
• May 2021 USA-ABC News Ransomware attack hits 4 Asian countries of AXA subsidiary