Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hypponen
Mikko Hermanni Hyppönenis a computer security expert and columnist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
attack computer hours online sleeping target
There is no need to have your computer online 24 hours (a day) as a target of an attack when you are sleeping or away from your computer.
attacks coming continent local majority online quite vast
The vast majority of the online crime cases, we don't even know which continent the attacks are coming from. And even if we are able to find online criminals, quite often there is no outcome. The local police don't act, or if they do, there's not enough evidence, or for some reason we can't take them down.
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.
argue atom attack bomb computer nuclear offensive scientists time using
Nuclear scientists lost their innocence when we used the atom bomb for the very first time. So we could argue computer scientists lost their innocence in 2009 when we started using malware as an offensive attack weapon.
attack everybody hoping looks major patch succeeding
Everybody was hoping they would get the patch out before a major attack would start. Now it looks like they are succeeding in doing just that. Well done.
attacks aware moment
At the moment we are not aware of any attacks that would have used this vulnerability.
actively attack block everybody involved knows later lay likely low malicious might rather virus writer
There might be no attack at all. As everybody knows about the attack, the virus writer may lay low and attack at a later date. The ISPs involved can actively block malicious postings. It's more likely the attacker will lay low or be blocked, rather than succeed.
attacks causing false improve percent possible strike systems time
Antivirus systems need to strike a balance between detecting all possible attacks without causing any false alarms. And while we try to improve on this all the time, there will never be a solution that is 100 percent perfect.
attacks buddy click dozens exploits files image messenger people seen send several since spam tries users using worm
We have seen dozens of different attacks using this vulnerability since Dec. 27. One exploits image files and tries to get users to click on them; another is an MSN Messenger worm that will send the worm to people on your buddy list, and we have seen several spam attacks.
care collected foreign intelligence legal monitor though worried
U.S. intelligence has the legal right to monitor foreign communications as they go through to U.S. service providers. However, even though something is legal doesn't make it right. I'm not American; I don't really care about what data is being collected about American citizens. I'm worried about us, the foreigners.
bad design needed
This was not a bug; this was something that was needed at the time. It is just bad design, design from another era.
government laws planet quite restrict restricted supposed
Laws and regulations are supposed to restrict the kind of surveillance governments do. In fact, the U.S. government is quite restricted in what kind of surveillance they can do on U.S. citizens. The problem is that 96 percent of the planet is not U.S. citizens.
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.
beauty crime future might online problems running worried
I see beauty in the future of the Internet, but I'm worried that we might not see that. I'm worried that we are running into problems because of online crime. Online crime is the one thing that might take these things away from us.