A Brief History of Ransomware

A history of ransomware is more than just dates and names—it's the story of how criminals evolved from mailing infected floppy disks in 1989 to running billion-dollar enterprises that cripple entire organizations. On this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, I sit down with Dr. Mike Saylor, my co-author on "Learning Ransomware Response and Recovery," to trace this evolution from the AIDS Trojan to today's sophisticated double extortion attacks.

We talk about how ransomware went from requiring physical distribution to scaling globally through the internet, how cryptocurrency made anonymous payment possible, and why the shift from tape to disk backups created vulnerabilities that attackers now exploit first. You'll learn about the wild west days when IT focused on building systems without understanding how bad guys attack, the emergence of ransomware-as-a-service that democratized cybercrime, and why modern attacks target your backups before encrypting your production systems.

If you've ever wondered why backup immutability matters or how we got to a point where ransomware is inevitable rather than hypothetical, this episode connects those dots. Dr. Mike and I also discuss why having backups is still critical even with double extortion threats, and what you need to know about defending your backup systems in today's threat environment.

Chapter Markers:

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:01:19 - Welcome and Guest Introduction

00:02:19 - Curtis's First Ransomware Memory

00:03:40 - The AIDS Trojan: First Ransomware (1989)

00:04:42 - The Wild West Era: Late 1990s Security

00:08:05 - Y2K and Budget Shifts

00:11:26 - The Transition from Tape to Disk Backups

00:15:45 - How Disk Backups Created Vulnerabilities

00:19:30 - The Rise of Cryptolocker and Bitcoin

00:23:15 - Ransomware as a Service Emerges

00:27:40 - WannaCry and NotPetya

00:31:20 - Double Extortion: The Game Changer

00:35:10 - Why Backups Still Matter

00:37:55 - Should You Just Pay the Ransom?

00:40:01 - Defending Your Backup System