Ransomware attacks and the Forensic Accountant's role | FVS Eye on Fraud

Issued by the AICPA® FLS Fraud Task Force
Lead authors: Rumbi Bwerinofa-Petrozzello, CPA/CFF, CFE
and Frederick Kohm, CPA/CFF

Ransomware explosion

In 1989 the evolutionary biologist Joseph Popp distributed 20,000 computer floppy disks to attendees of the World Health Organization’s AIDS conference.¹ Along with a computer-based questionnaire designed to assess an individual’s risk of contracting AIDS, each floppy disk contained malicious software (malware) that led to the first known ransomware attack. This digital version of the HIV virus became known as