Mikko Hypponen

Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hermanni Hyppönenis a computer security expert and columnist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
against computer countries defending digital everyday focused foreign handful highly industry labs provide rely
Defending against military-strength malware is a real challenge for the computer security industry. Furthermore, the security industry is not global. It is highly focused in just a handful of countries. The rest of the countries rely on foreign security labs to provide their everyday digital security for them.
against attacks avoid banking created great products protect targeted truth
The truth is, consumer-grade antivirus products can't protect against targeted malware created by well-resourced nation-states with bulging budgets. They can protect you against run-of-the-mill malware: banking trojans, keystroke loggers and e-mail worms. But targeted attacks like these go to great lengths to avoid antivirus products on purpose.
against behavior change cheap cheaper delete future means online people store
It's so cheap to store all data. It's cheaper to keep it than to delete it. And that means people will change their behavior because they know anything they say online can be used against them in the future.
viruses worked year
I've worked with viruses for 15 years and things have been getting progressively worse. This year is going to be bad.
awhile figure home people reported
These will only get reported when people get home from work, and it will take awhile before they figure out who to call.
bad brand buy computer five infected internet plug situation ten turn within worm
The situation on the Internet right now is so bad that if you go and buy a brand new computer and turn it on and plug it into the Internet, it will be infected by a worm within five to ten minutes,
beyond corporate finds quite spread worm
The worm can spread quite well once it finds its way beyond corporate firewalls.
bigger computers estimate percent potential problems situation vulnerable worldwide
Right now, the situation is bad, but it could be much worse. The potential for problems is bigger than we have ever seen. We estimate 99 percent of computers worldwide are vulnerable to this attack.
check clicking convincing fairly site surfing
Everything would look fairly convincing if they did some surfing to check out the site before clicking on the link. But they would still get burned.
ask asks bank fake fooled gets money moves next problem says target
The target is fooled into logging into a fake bank, where they ask for his authorization code. The fake bank logs into the real bank with the one-time password and moves money around. Then it gets back to the customer, says there has been a problem and asks him to give the next code.
believe blame break cycle everybody found microsoft next patch release soon test wanting widespread worm
Everybody would like to see the patch as soon as possible, but I can't blame Microsoft for wanting to test it thoroughly. However, if a widespread worm is found before next Tuesday, I do believe they will break the cycle and just release the patch.
computers happened running testing virus
As the virus is not new it's 2 years old this could only have happened if those testing computers were not running any anti-virus programs,
attacks aware moment
At the moment we are not aware of any attacks that would have used this vulnerability.
code ends internet seen shared whether
It all comes down to whether the code ends up being shared or not. We have not seen it out on the Internet yet.