Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Hackers.
About Mikko Hyppönen's TEDTalk
In 1986, the first PC virus - Brain - began to spread. What was once annoying has become a sophisticated tool for crime. Computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen describes discovering Brain and why the guys who wrote it never meant any harm.
About Mikko Hyppönen
Mikko Hyppönen is the Chief Research Officer for F-Secure, and he has led his team through some of the largest computer virus outbreaks in history. He named the infamous Storm Worm, was part of the Conficker Working Group and he has done classified briefings on the Stuxnet worm, the virus used to attack Iran's nuclear program. He has also helped law enforcement in USA, Europe and Asia on cyber crime cases.
As a few hundred million more Internet users join the web from India and China and elsewhere, and as governments and corporations become more sophisticated at using viruses as weapons, Hyppönen asks, what's next? Who will be defending the world's networks from malicious software?
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.