Mikko Hermanni Hyppönen (; born 13 October 1969) is a Finnish

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, the ...

expert, speaker and author. He is known for the Hyppönen Law about IoT security, which states that whenever an appliance is described as being "smart", it is vulnerable. He works as the Chief Research Officer at WithSecure (former F-Secure for Business) and as the Principal Research Advisor at

F-Secure F-Secure Corporation is a global cyber security and privacy company, which has its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The company has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, ...

Career

Mikko Hyppönen has worked at F-Secure in Finland since 1991. Hyppönen has assisted law enforcement in the United States, Europe and Asia since the 1990s on cybercrime cases and advises governments on

cyber crime A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing ...

. His team took down the Sobig.F botnet. In 2004, Hyppönen cooperated with Vanity Fair on a feature, ''The Code Warrior'', which examined his role in defeating the Blaster and Sobig

Computer worm A computer worm is a standalone malware computer program that replicates itself in order to spread to other computers. It often uses a computer network to spread itself, relying on security failures on the target computer to access it. It wil ...

s. Hyppönen has given keynotes and presentations at a number of conferences around the world, including

Black Hat Black hat, blackhats, or black-hat refers to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Black hat (computer security), a hacker who violates computer security for little reason beyond maliciousness or for personal gain * Black hat, part of black and whit ...

DEF CON DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is a hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyer ...

, DLD, RSA, and V2 Security. In addition to data security events, Hyppönen has delivered talks at general-interest events, such as

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

, TEDx, DLD,

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

Slush Slush, also called slush ice, is a slurry mixture of small ice crystals (e.g., snow) and liquid water. In the natural environment, slush forms when ice or snow melts or during mixed precipitation. This often mixes with dirt and other polluta ...

and

Google Zeitgeist The following is a list of products, services, and apps provided by Google. Active, soon-to-be discontinued, and discontinued products, services, tools, hardware, and other applications are broken out into designated sections. Web-based product ...

. He's also spoken at various military events, including AFCEA events and the NATO CCD COE's ICCC. Hyppönen is a reserve officer in the Finnish Army. Hyppönen is a member of the advisory board of

IMPACT Impact may refer to: * Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Impac ...

(International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats) since 2007 together with

Yevgeny Kaspersky Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky (Russian: Евгений Валентинович Касперский; born 4 October 1965) is a Russian cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT security company with 4,000 employees. He co-found ...

Hamadoun Touré Hamadoun Ibrahim Touré (born September 3, 1953) of Mali was Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICTs), from 2 ...

, Fred Piper and John Thompson. Hyppönen is a columnist for BetaNews and Wired. He has also written on his research for

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

. In 2011, he was ranked 61st in ''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

''s Top 100 Global Thinkers report. Hyppönen coined the term "Cybercrime Unicorns" to describe cybercrime organizations that are worth over a billion US dollars - a reference to Startup unicorns

Computer security history

Hyppönen made international news in 2011 when he tracked down and visited the authors of the first PC virus in history,

Brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

. Hyppönen produced a documentary of the event. The documentary was published on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. Hyppönen has also been documenting the rise of mobile phone malware since the first smartphone viruses were found. The

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

"News from the Lab", started by Hyppönen in 2004 was the first blog from any

antivirus Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name. ...

company. Hyppönen has been credited by Twitter for improving Twitter's security. Hyppönen has been the Curator for the Malware Museum at

The Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

since 2016. He published his first book in October 2021, and its English translation, ''If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable'', was published in June 2022.

References

External links

* * * *
"Fighting viruses, defending the net" (TEDGlobal 2011)
*
"Three types of online attack" (TEDxBrussels 2011)
** *
"How the NSA betrayed the world's trust — time to act" (TEDxBrussels 2013)

Cybercrime Unicorns
lecture at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, April 2022 * Hyppönen and Nyman (2017)
The Internet of (Vulnerable) Things: On Hyppönen's Law, Security Engineering, and IoT Legislation
Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(4) 5–11.
References on Embassy cables
leaked by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international Nonprofit organization, non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous Source (journalism), sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activism, Internet acti ...

* * * Jake Edge
Living with the surveillance state
a summary of Hyppönen's talk at LinuxCon Europe 2013. LWN.net * 10. April 2017, TTÜ Haridustehnoloogiakeskus
Public lecture by Mikko Hyppönen at Mektory
youtube.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Hypponen, Mikko 1969 births Living people Finnish computer programmers Chief technology officers of computer security companies

Career

Computer security history

See also

References

External links