1989 Ransomware

[BillyBobZorton]

Left: The harmless-seeming app install screen. / Right: The ransomware message that threatened users a few days later.


This caught my attention the other day. It's funny how Ransomware has existed for so much time, dating back to DOS days. And they used a Panama offshores account of course.

Those blaming bitcoin for the invention of all evil ransomware programs should do some research.

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[Mike Mayor]

When people do stuff like that it makes me laugh. It's like blaming drugs for bad behavior or blaming video games for things that are really the responsibility of the individual. Simply a scapegoat. Obviously Bitcoin would be used. It's the easiest way to pay. I think most people have a silly way of thinking where they will associate something as bad just because it's been placed along side it.

Thanks for getting those screenshots that's so interesting. I'm shocked people actually pay up. As long as that happens these randsomware viruses will exist.

[Bit_Happy]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

[pooya87]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

a little google search tells me what OP is talking about is called AIDS Trojan based on the screenshot and yes there was a cure for it!
"AIDSOUT was a reliable removal program for the Trojan and the CLEARAID program recovered encrypted plaintext after the Trojan triggered. CLEARAID automatically reversed the encryption without having to contact the extortionist."
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_(Trojan_horse)

[alani123]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

[paul gatt]

Left: The harmless-seeming app install screen. / Right: The ransomware message that threatened users a few days later.


This caught my attention the other day. It's funny how Ransomware has existed for so much time, dating back to DOS days. And they used a Panama offshores account of course.

Those blaming bitcoin for the invention of all evil ransomware programs should do some research.

Bitcoin is geared towards absolute security, which secures the safety of the world's fastest underground and currency trading. Therefore, it is easily taken advantage of by bad guys, we have to accept.

[Ayiranorea]

Due to the anonymous functioning, bitcoin is much used for lots and lots of illegal and terrorist activities. Ransomware is one among that which has been using bitcoin as ransom. Even without bitcoin ransomware is found but bitcoin make things easier.

[MingLee]

That's actually kind of fascinating to be completely honest, I didn't know that they had this sort of stuff going on when I was just a kid. It really is some vintage software when you think about it, but still fascinating that they managed to get stuff like that to work all the way back then.
I haven't heard anyone blaming Bitcoin specifically for the ransomware attacks, where and when was this? Sounds like there's someone with a specific agenda trying to make use of an unfortunate event.

[flower1024]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

That's the reason many governments are not regulating bitcoins to accept it do any regular business. Recent ransomware attack brought even more bad reputation to the bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Many non-bitcoin users are now thinking that bitcoins are using only for these illegal transactions. So other good things about bitcoins no one wants to know it.

[freedomno1]

It's a fun footnote in computer history that one of the first ransomware program was named AIDS and made by an evolutionary biologist.
I guess the difference between Panama days back in the 80's and now is that people feel it's more easier to use cryptography to remain untracked in general no need for an offshore mail box.

[Amph]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

the last one called wannacry stop the possibility tor restart your computer, so you need to shut down your sevrer/pc and do a secure erase, if when you restart you are still under wannacry, i think the only psssibility at that point is to change the ssd/hdd

which is a pain in the ass, but if you have a backup you save your data and load them again in the new hard drive

[davis196]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

Criminals can use every altcoin they want for their ransomware,but they are stupid enough to
use bitcoin and bring bad publicity for btc and our community.
I thought that monero is more anonymous than btc.Why don`t they use monero?

[freedomno1]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

Criminals can use every altcoin they want for their ransomware,but they are stupid enough to
use bitcoin and bring bad publicity for btc and our community.
I thought that monero is more anonymous than btc.Why don`t they use monero?

People would then be directed to purchase Bitcoin then told to go to an altcoin exchange in order to purchase the ransom currency.
It is a fair point though I presume it is due to the hackers thinking it is complicated enough for someone with a time limit, you have X days to pay ransom + register to an exchange that might not work in your country to get moneros.

[xuan87]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

Criminals can use every altcoin they want for their ransomware,but they are stupid enough to
use bitcoin and bring bad publicity for btc and our community.
I thought that monero is more anonymous than btc.Why don`t they use monero?

I think this is the great example that ransomware already appears before bitcoin was created, and bitcoin only become the victim of ransomware because the criminals asking the ransom using bitcoin any available things can be used as ransom

I think the reason why the criminal asking for bitcoin in wannacry maybe because he thought that bitcoin is so anonymous and I agree there are more anonymous coin in the market, but maybe because it is easier to cash out bitcoin that is why the criminal choose bitcoin

[Nagadota]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

Bitcoin is less anonymous than cash.  There's stuff like the 500 Euro note which is nearly exclusively used by criminals and corrupt politicians or police officers.

You're mainly shocked by the prospect of not having all your activities tracked precisely by a bank or government.  Bitcoin just imitates the function of cash for people to pass it between each other without a third party.  The point is that when we slowly move to digital payments, people don't have to be followed for their entire lives (and also, blockchain payments can potentially be much cheaper in the future due to the cost of trusted intermediaries).

If it wasn't Bitcoin they were using it would be something else.  It doesn't matter.

[7788bitcoin]

Ransomware is really not new and the idea of extortion has been around since long time ago. However, if the scammer think bitcoin can help, he/she/they really is/are making a mistake. I think everyone is now tracking the coins and making it very difficult to cash out.

[ViceOfBTC21]

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

Bitcoin is less anonymous than cash.  There's stuff like the 500 Euro note which is nearly exclusively used by criminals and corrupt politicians or police officers.

You're mainly shocked by the prospect of not having all your activities tracked precisely by a bank or government.  Bitcoin just imitates the function of cash for people to pass it between each other without a third party.  The point is that when we slowly move to digital payments, people don't have to be followed for their entire lives (and also, blockchain payments can potentially be much cheaper in the future due to the cost of trusted intermediaries).

If it wasn't Bitcoin they were using it would be something else.  It doesn't matter.

Ransomware is really not new and the idea of extortion has been around since long time ago. However, if the scammer think bitcoin can help, he/she/they really is/are making a mistake. I think everyone is now tracking the coins and making it very difficult to cash out.

We can clean bitcoins using XMR. Also XMR is difficult to use, that's why criminals use bitcoin. XMR is pretty anonymous that even AlphaBay uses it, but it requires many users using it. So now it's still better than bitcoin mixers, but they will combine them both to be on safe side.

[eaLiTy]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

If you are not having anything important and if you are having back ups,you can very well format the hard disk and just re install the operating system and that is the easiest way to deal with it if you are not planning to pay,even a system restore in safe mode could work with some ransomware ,but it all depends upon how sophisticated the virus is.

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

It is not entirely true as the payments are not truly anonymous.When the coins starts moving the authorities can track them and catch them if they want.They have to use a mixing service or an exchange to convert the coins and if the authorities are monitoring they can catch them .

[Xester]

Left: The harmless-seeming app install screen. / Right: The ransomware message that threatened users a few days later.


This caught my attention the other day. It's funny how Ransomware has existed for so much time, dating back to DOS days. And they used a Panama offshores account of course.

Those blaming bitcoin for the invention of all evil ransomware programs should do some research.

This post is an eye opener and this information must be shared so that the reputation of bitcoin will saved from the misunderstanding and misinterpretations that bitcoin is a hackers money. Thus this topic will be very helpful to inform the public that ransomware have existed since DOS days and it just evolved and started using bitcoin in their schemes.

[BillyBobZorton]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

the last one called wannacry stop the possibility tor restart your computer, so you need to shut down your sevrer/pc and do a secure erase, if when you restart you are still under wannacry, i think the only psssibility at that point is to change the ssd/hdd

which is a pain in the ass, but if you have a backup you save your data and load them again in the new hard drive

If you use secure erase under a linux boot CD or USB, then it completely erases the disk and any data is impossible to recover. It's impossible that the malware would still be there after a secure erase. Of course you lose all data unless you had a backup.

[stompix]

AIDS was introduced into systems through a floppy disk called the "AIDS Information Introductory Diskette", which had been mailed to a mailing list. Evolutionary biologist Dr. Joseph Popp, was identified as the author of the AIDS trojan horse and was a subscriber to this list.
Popp was eventually discovered by the British anti-virus industry and named on a New Scotland Yard arrest warrant. He was detained in Brixton Prison

This is the problem.
The culprit was caught in a matter of weeks following the money trail.
What about the guys that launched wannacry?

[deisik]

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

the last one called wannacry stop the possibility tor restart your computer, so you need to shut down your sevrer/pc and do a secure erase, if when you restart you are still under wannacry, i think the only psssibility at that point is to change the ssd/hdd

which is a pain in the ass, but if you have a backup you save your data and load them again in the new hard drive

If you use secure erase under a linux boot CD or USB, then it completely erases the disk and any data is impossible to recover. It's impossible that the malware would still be there after a secure erase. Of course you lose all data unless you had a backup

In fact, this is not quite so

It may be true in respect to this Toolatetocry virus, but in general there is a possibility for a variety of viruses which could potentially inject themselves into the BIOS code, so erasing just your hard drive won't be enough (they are more of a concept than reality but not completely impossible either). In that case, you may have to update your BIOS as well. Some viruses are known to outright damage the BIOS code, and after that your computer may become unusable unless you can somehow reprogram the BIOS chip. I had been doing that myself in the past, but the procedure requires special equipment (more specifically, a programming device). If you don't have a chip programmer (and BIOS is as dead as a doornail), your only chance is to use another motherboard of the same model for flashing BIOS on the fly (I successfully did that too in my earlier days)

[TravelMug]

AIDS was introduced into systems through a floppy disk called the "AIDS Information Introductory Diskette", which had been mailed to a mailing list. Evolutionary biologist Dr. Joseph Popp, was identified as the author of the AIDS trojan horse and was a subscriber to this list.
Popp was eventually discovered by the British anti-virus industry and named on a New Scotland Yard arrest warrant. He was detained in Brixton Prison

This is the problem.
The culprit was caught in a matter of weeks following the money trail.
What about the guys that launched wannacry?

I think the culprit can be caught. You just have to watch his wallet, and follow it as well. But I guess we have for cooperation, if the hacker try to used a mixer to cover up his tracks. Or maybe blacklisted the wallet address so that he can't used any exchangers he choose to in order to covert it to fiat.

[unamis76]

Those blaming bitcoin for the invention of all evil ransomware programs should do some research.

Research is counter intuitive to keeping the masses uninformed.

Was there a way to fight back and clean it up without paying?

Many of these viruses were pretty simple and some even had coding errors that allowed them to be wiped in a relatively easy manner. But some others just infected your DOS disk files too when you tried to format your computer...

One of the things bitcoin is revolutionazing sure is ransomware. The ability for criminals to receive anonymous payments from afar is astoundingly useful to them.

That's the reason many governments are not regulating bitcoins to accept it do any regular business. Recent ransomware attack brought even more bad reputation to the bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Many non-bitcoin users are now thinking that bitcoins are using only for these illegal transactions. So other good things about bitcoins no one wants to know it.

Millions of dollars are used daily for many crimes, such as drug dealing. That being said, shouldn't we also stop using dollars for "regular business"?

If it wasn't Bitcoin they were using it would be something else.  It doesn't matter.

Sums it up quite well.