{"podcast":{"title":"The Backup Wrap-Up","slug":"the-backup-wrap-up-758069","podcast_index_feed_id":758069,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/backupwrapup/","website_url":"https://www.backupwrapup.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/4670d4e3-81d6-4770-aeca-fe0331f5ce9e/IO00Uwof5u-hiUJElhkbBmKT.jpg","author":"W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup)","episode_count":355,"summary":"Formerly known as \"Restore it All,\" The Backup Wrap-up podcast turns unappreciated backup admins into cyber recovery heroes. After a brief analysis of backup-related news, each episode dives deep into one topic that you can use to better protect your organization from data loss, be it from accidents, disasters, or ransomware. The Backup Wrap-up is hosted by W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup) and his co-host Prasanna Malaiyandi. Curtis' passion for backups began over 30 years ago when his employer, a $35B bank, lost its purchasing database – and the backups he was in charge of were worthless. After miraculously not being fired, he resolved to learn everything he could about a topic most people try to get away from. His co-host, Prasanna, saw similar tragedies from the vendor side of the house and also wanted to do whatever he could to stop that from happening to others. A particular focus lately has been the scourge of ransomware that is plaguing IT organizations across the globe. That's why in addition to backup and disaster recovery, we also touch on information security techniques you can use to protect your backup systems from ransomware. If you'd like to go from being unappreciate…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-06T22:18:00.235096+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069"},"episode":{"title":"A Brief History of Ransomware","slug":"a-brief-history-of-ransomware","published_at":"2026-02-09T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/a-brief-history-of-ransomware","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069","url":"https://www.backupwrapup.com/brief-history-ransomware","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/2c891325-c412-4731-be26-54696e1f89e9.mp3","summary":"A history of ransomware is more than just dates and names—it's the story of how criminals evolved from mailing infected floppy disks in 1989 to running billion-dollar enterprises that cripple entire organizations. On this episode of The Backup Wrap-up, I sit down with Dr. Mike Saylor, my co-author on \"Learning Ransomware Response and Recovery,\" to trace this evolution from the AIDS Trojan to today's sophisticated double extortion attacks. We talk about how ransomware went from requiring physical distribution to scaling globally through the internet, how cryptocurrency made anonymous payment possible, and why the shift from tape to disk backups created vulnerabilities that attackers now exploit first. You'll learn about the wild west days when IT focused on building systems without understanding how bad guys attack, the emergence of ransomware-as-a-service that democratized cybercrime, and why modern attacks target your backups before encrypting your production systems. If you've ever wondered why backup immutability matters or how we got to a point where ransomware is inevitable rather than hypothetical, this episode connects those dots. Dr. Mike and I also discuss why having backups is still critical even with double extortion threats, and what you need to know about defending your backup systems in today's threat environment. Chapter Markers: 00:00:00 - Introduction 00:01:19 - Welcome and Guest Introduction 00:02:19 - Curtis's First Ransomware Memory 00:03:40 - The AIDS Trojan: First Ransomware (1989) 00:04:42 - The Wild West Era: Late 1990s Security 00:08:05 - Y2K and Budget Shifts 00:11:26 - The Transition from Tape to Disk Backups 00:15:45 - How Disk Backups Created Vulnerabilities 00:19:30 - The Rise of Cryptolocker and Bitcoin 00:23:15 - Ransomware as a Service…","meta_description":"A history of ransomware is more than just dates and names—it's the story of how criminals evolved from mailing infected floppy disks in 1989 to running bi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2648,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/episodes/a-brief-history-of-ransomware/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/a-brief-history-of-ransomware.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}