Joseph Popp
American evolutionary biologist (1950 to the mid-2000s). He is known as the person who, in 1989, distributed floppy disks said to contain information on AIDS to about 20,000 people, planting the malware "AIDS Trojan," which disabled the computer and then demanded payment of a "license fee." This is regarded as the first ransomware on record, and Popp is also described as the inventor of ransomware.
Biography
Born September 10, 1950, in Cleveland, Ohio. An evolutionary biologist who studied at Harvard, he spent many years researching hamadryas baboons in East Africa, and at the time of the incident was involved in AIDS research.
The AIDS Trojan
In 1989, he mailed about 20,000 floppy disks titled "AIDS Information - Introductory Diskettes" to participants in a World Health Organization (WHO) AIDS conference and others. The Trojan horse planted on the disk counted the number of times the computer was started, and on the 90th start encrypted the file names on the C drive, leaving the computer unusable. A message on the screen demanded that 189 dollars be sent to a post office box in Panama, payable to "PC Cyborg Corporation," to renew the license. For this reason it is also called "PC Cyborg."
However, because the encryption used symmetric-key cryptography, it could be undone once the encryption table was known. The security researcher Jim Bates showed this weakness and built a recovery tool. The weakness later also prompted research into stronger ransomware using public-key cryptography (cryptovirology).
Arrest and trial
Popp was identified and arrested, and was charged in Britain with eleven counts of blackmail. He claimed that he had intended to donate the ransom to AIDS research. At trial the defense raised the question of his mental state, and in the end he was judged unfit to stand trial and was returned to the United States.
Later years
In his later years he self-published his book Popular Evolution, and worked on opening a conservatory of tropical butterflies in Oneonta, New York. After his death the facility opened under the name "Joseph L. Popp, Jr. Butterfly Conservatory."
To verify
- The date and cause of death (the obituary says he died in a traffic accident on June 27, 2006, but the CNN article gives 2007)
- The circumstances of his arrest (some sources say he was arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam; others that he was arrested by the FBI in Ohio and extradited to Britain)
- The place and date of the conference to which the disks were sent (some sources say a conference in Stockholm)
- Why he did it (one theory holds that being turned down for a job at the WHO was the motive)
References
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