The program was first identified by the Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab, which named it “Icepol.” In March 2012, police in Southampton, England, arrested two men on suspicion of creating a ransomware program called Reveton. In 2006, malware called Gpcode.AG began to appear, which installed browser helper objects and ransom notes through rogue Firefox extensions hosted on sites such as and, as well as through emails with malicious attachments. The first ransomware program was distributed in 1989 by the AIDS Information Trojan, which used a modified version of the game “Kukulcan,” disguised as an erotic interactive movie.
It was spread via a fraudulent Flash player update that might infect users through a drive-by attack. It primarily targeted Ukrainian media organizations, rather than NotPetya. Bad Rabbitīad Rabbit was visible ransomware that employed similar code and vulnerabilities to NotPetya, spreading across Ukraine, Russia, and other countries. NotPetya is distributed via the same exploit as WannaCry to quickly spread and demand payment in bitcoin to reverse its modifications. It’s known for corrupting and encrypting the master boot record of Microsoft Windows-based systems. The NotPetya ransomware attack is one of the most harmful techniques. In 2014, a decryption tool became available for this malware. The CryptoLocker ransomware spread via an email attachment that purported to be FedEx and UPS tracking notifications. CryptoLockerĬryptoLocker was the first ransomware of this generation to demand Bitcoin for payment and encrypt a user’s hard drive as well as network drives. Proofpoint assisted in locating the sample used to discover the kill switch and in analyzing the ransomware. MetaBeat will bring together thought leaders to give guidance on how metaverse technology will transform the way all industries communicate and do business on October 4 in San Francisco, CA.Ī devastating Microsoft exploit was utilized to create a worldwide ransomware virus that infected over 250,000 systems before a kill switch was activated to stop its growth.