"ransomeware", not in OED3; GBooks 2005--

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/5/2013 11:29 AM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>Confused -- is it "ransomware", "ransomeware" or both?

! I never noticed I had used both.  But Google does show both (much
more frequently without the "e").

Joel


>DanG
>
>
>On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 11:23 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      "ransomeware", not in OED3; GBooks 2005--
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Should be findable earlier than 2005, since Wikipedia says the first
> > such program was 1989.
> >
> > A  term I had not heard before, until my local computer products
> > store sent me an email warning which included as part of its advice
> > about "prevention" to "Stay safe with an updated, lightweight and
> > trusted ANTI-VIRUS".  (A come-on for ransome-ransomeware?  To be
> > fair, they did not hype that, and offered additional no-cost advice
> > for both prevention and cure.)
> >
> > For discussion, see the Wikipedia article.  Under "History", that
> > article claims that "The first known ransomware was the 1989
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_%28trojan_horse%29>"AIDS" trojan
> > (also known as "PC Cyborg") written by Joseph Popp", but the usually
> > useless Google Book search using dates gives me nothing earlier than
> > 2005 -- http://tinyurl.com/k5ff2wb or
> >
> >
> http://issue-fix.com/windows/ransomware-removal.php?sq={QueryString}&mt=b&kw=%2Bransom%20%2Bware&ad=69&src=ggl
> > That page's definition is curiously worded:  "Ransomware is
> > ransomware that locks your computer by hampering its interface,
> > blocking other programs or encrypting files (a process that makes the
> > files unusable until they are decrypted). During this lockdown, the
> > ransomware will issue an alert, often in the form of a pop up, that
> > forces you to pay a fee to remove the lockdown."  [Perhaps the second
> > "ransomeware" is simply a typo for "software".]
> >
> > Not in OED3.
> >
> > Joel
> >
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> >
>
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