The First Ransomware in the world – When it all started

Known as the fictitious PC Cyborg Corporation the first ransomware. A red window and a blank message demanding payment from a mysterious company. Almost three decades before WannaCry unleashed global panic, infecting computers in 150 countries in a short time, including those of large companies and hospitals.

In December 1989, when the first web page had not yet been born, 20,000 5.25 inch disks were sent from London to British and foreign companies, subscribers to ‘PC Business World’ magazine and even participants of a congress on AIDS organized by the World Health Organization.

What did the first Ransomware do to the infected computers

Eddy Willems, currently a cybersecurity expert at the GData company, was one of the victims who opened the program from one of those floppy disks. In the late 1980s, this Belgian computer scientist, his boss had asked him to take a look at the floppy disk. In doing so, Willems found a questionnaire that allowed the user to determine if he belonged to a group at special risk of contracting HIV, identified at the beginning of that decade. However, the next day he was no longer able to use his equipment. “A window opened and my computer crashed, exactly the same thing that has happened these days. This ask for a payment of $189 dollars to send to a PO box in Panama.

The message, which was also printed automatically, demanded a ammount of money from users to pay for the license of the ‘software’ to PC Cyborg Corporation, supposedly located in the Central American country. The program had encrypted his hard drive; if you paid that amount, they would send you a key to regain control of your files.

See also:
CryptoLocker – Unexpected Ransomware
WannaRen – The day the Ransomware lost

---