Dr Joseph L Popp Jr and The First-Ever Ransomware – The AIDS Trojan

This article is a systematic literature review of the 1989 AIDS Trojan—the first-known ransomware—detailing how evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp distributed infected 5.25-inch floppy disks to researchers, the ransom demands, his subsequent behavior and legal outcome, and the wider historical impact on modern ransomware; the author builds on research for WatchGuard's Ransomware Tracker to aggregate artifacts and evidence to examine motivations, technical behavior, and legacy.