An Antivirus Story. The first ransomware: the AIDS Trojan

An Antivirus Story. The first ransomware: the AIDS Trojan

Up until that point, viruses were only used to amuse their developers. They were just a pastime, and the idea of making money from malicious software existed at best in theory. That changed in 1989 when a man named Joseph Popp created the very first “ AIDS Trojans. 

Once installed, the AIDS Trojan counted all computer restarts. After the 90th reboot, all files were hidden so that they were inaccessible, and they were asked to post $ 189 to a designated address to "renew the license." Joseph Popp was eventually caught and charged with eleven blackmail charges. But he escaped punishment because he was declared mentally incompetent and agreed that the profits from his ransomware incident would come to such a happy end!

The first mass panic: Michelangelo

The viruses presented so far all originated in the domain of rich, educated men. Computers were luxury goods and were usually only found at universities, in businesses, and among hobby programmers and members of the elite. Since the computers were more or less closed systems, viruses could not spread so easily unless they were actually infecting floppy disks in the hope that they would be inserted into different computers.

That changed in 1992 with the advent of the Michelangelo virus.

The Michelangelo virus was a destructive worm that attacked every floppy disk inserted in the computer without making itself felt. It was not activated until March 6, the eponymous painter's birthday, and completely paralyzed the infected computer. Although the Michelangelo virus was nothing special, it soon became apparent that some computer and software manufacturers had inadvertently shipped products with the Michelangelo virus preinstalled. 

The actual number of infected computers never exceeded 20,000. But John McAfee, founder of McAfee Antivirus and a colorful figure, came after an expert assessment to the conclusion that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of computers are infected. That might have been a bold claim, but the results speak for themselves: Interest in antivirus technology has skyrocketed. Did this fact motivate him to make his publicity claim?

Who can say that?

The first social engineering attack: Melissa

Melissa, one of the first email-based viruses, appeared in 1999. He made use of social engineering for the first time - a mixture of manipulation and lies, designed to circumvent the computer's internal security mechanisms. It spread by sending emails to each account's contact list. The subject was: “Important message from passwords that allowed access to every single one of them (although it was certainly a bit irritating when you got this list from“ Grandpa ”.)

What is even more worrying is that the virus then sent other infected documents to the target person's contact list - usually not just the porno list, but other DOC files that it found on the computer and infected as well. In this way, classified or private files were often shared with friends, family, and work colleagues.

It was very easy to stop Melissa and arrest the mastermind. But perhaps his greatest legacy is that he was the direct inspiration for the greatest malware attack of all time: ILOVEYOU, also known as the love letter worm. Disguised as a love letter sent by email, ILOVEYOU went to work as soon as the attached text file was opened. Even by today's malware standards, the damage done by this worm was devastating. 

Immediately after activation, ILOVEYOU downloaded a Trojan that overwritten files, accessed private data such as user names, passwords, or IP addresses, and then sent an infected e-mail to all contacts in the e-mail account. Lastly, the email account owner was effectively locked out of their own account. In total, ILOVEYOU infected an estimated 45 million computers worldwide (around 10% of all networked computers) causing over $ 8 billion in damage.

On the off chance that Melissa was a reminder, ILOVEYOU was an admonition shot. He not only demonstrated the effects malware can have on the unprotected, uninformed population but also impressively demonstrated the destructive potential of this threat if it spreads unchecked. Organizations that previously considered security a secondary priority shifted their priorities and antivirus products that were once considered a nice touch have become a staple must-have.

That is still the case today.

Living story

There have already been numerous innovations in the area of cybersecurity. We are convinced that many more will follow as the hacking world refines further innovations. In addition to brilliant hackers targeting your data, there are also tons of brilliant cybersecurity researchers who use products like AVG to keep you safe. As long as you watch out for red flags, update your antivirus regularly,