funsec mailing list archives

Re: Ransomeware


From: Drsolly <drsollyp () drsolly com>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 22:35:01 +0000 (GMT)

I got one of the disks (followed by a ton of others), and I did an 
analysis of it. As I recall, he encrypted the filenames.

On Sun, 19 Mar 2006, Nick FitzGerald wrote:

Drsolly wrote:

First done in 1990, the AIDS Information disk.  ...

Well, IIRC and if we can trust the date stamps of Her Majesty's Royal 
Mail service, I think technically Popp did this in early/mid December 
1989...

...  Dr Popp was charged with 
blackmail, and pleaded insanity.

I'm not sure he actually pleaded insanity (he was extradited from the 
US to the UK, where he was found guilty, and he was tried in absentia 
in Italy and also found guilty), but his practise of wearing a paper 
bag over his head may have been a contributing factor in in that belief 
(he was certainly a few sandwiches short of the full picnic...).

There was also some evidence (found in the US when he was arrested by 
the FBI (?) to face the UK extradition hearing??) that the Dec 89 
postal drop in the UK was possibly a "trial run" for a much larger drop 
Popp was planning.

Given the stir I seem to recall this story making (though maybe that's 
exaggerated by the fact New Zealand is/was more closely attuned to "UK 
news") at the time (and we received a copy of the disk in the computer 
center at the local university where I worked, so it was a little 
"closer to home" for me) there is surprisingly little quality 
information about it on the web, but as I suggested in my earlier 
response, a little Googling can turn up some good stuff...


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald

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