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

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

expert, speaker and author. He is known for the Hyppönen Law of 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, Swed ...

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 Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cybercriminals may explo ...

. 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 will ...

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

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

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

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

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 pollutan ...

and Google Zeitgeist. 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 large force or mechanical shock over a short period of time * Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US Science and technology * Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event * Imp ...

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

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 Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

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

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

''s Top 100 Global Thinkers report.

Computer security history

In 2011, Hyppönen tracked down and visited the authors of the first PC virus in history,

Brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

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

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

"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 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

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 University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, 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 a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...

* 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 Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, 3rd Class Chief technology officers of computer security companies

Career

Computer security history

See also

References

External links