Comments on: The dangers of online crime: Q&A with Mikko Hypponen http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/ The TED Blog shares interesting news about TED, TED Talks video, the TED Prize and more. Tue, 18 Jun 2013 06:04:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Ania Ciuba http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-10207 Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:58:26 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-10207 Mikko is answering your questions in the F-Secure Community http://community.f-secure.com/ on December 5-9 2011.

]]> By: technology, mobile phones, the internet, social networks | sheplyon http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-9532 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:55:01 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-9532 [...] The dangers of online crime: Q&A with Mikko Hypponen. [...]

]]> By: The dangers of online crime: Q&A with Mikko Hypponen | sheplyon http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-9531 Sat, 15 Oct 2011 06:53:46 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-9531 [...] The dangers of online crime: Q&A with Mikko Hypponen. Share this:TwitterFacebook This entry was posted in Uncategorized by sheplyon. Bookmark the permalink. [...]

]]> By: Nicolas Iragorri http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8984 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:21:30 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8984 Lol, Sorry didn’t get it before. I see what you were going for. Cheers!

]]> By: Yago Nuchera http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8918 Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:49:09 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8918 Hi again Nicolas!
Thanks for your email, fellow Linux user :) I agree with everything you say in it, but I have to point something out: I never said security companies like Mikko’s would be writing viruses no matter the reason, and you imply that that’s my opinion when, in fact, it is not.

Let me put it differently so that maybe you understand what I was trying to convey:
Imagine that you work for, say, a homeless charity.
You work everyday 10 to 6pm thanks to the fact that there are homeless people who need your company’s service.
If all of a sudden homelessness was to disappear, you’d loose your job…
Would this realization get you to push people off their homes so as to maintain your job? Well, I hope not. But that doesn’t change the fact that the homeless situation directly benefits you and that, in this capitalist system, you have to market your service…

]]> By: Nicolas Iragorri http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8898 Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:13:17 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8898 Hello Yago!! Indeed I think It’s true what you say, as to why Linux is more secure, and the vulnerabilities of iOS and Android. I am a Linux user myself. I have to turn to Windows every now and then because I need it for work, but I use Linux everytime I can and I’m loving more everytime. Distros like Ubuntu have come a long way and really just work out of the box. Like you I love PC’s, beacuse of prices and the computer models that are available, but without Linux you really can’t get the juice out of it. If you leave Windows installed you always feel like you’re stuck behind the Pentium I era.

You gotta love free software ( free as in freedom ). Private Corporations will always put their priorities first. With Linux it’s all about the user experience ( by users for users ). A wise man one said, “You can’t serve two lords”. What I mean by this is, when you design an OS or an Application, you gotta have a philosophy behind it, either it’s profits or it’s ease of use and convenience, you just can’t have both.

My opinion on what you asked about companies is the following. I do think It’s true that its in those companies interest to keep deleting viruses, and so they benefit from the abundance of malware on the net. But I think they have absolutely no need to produce them. Take a look at any country and see how many murderers, drug dealers, criminals, thieves and thugs live there. You know for a fact you won’t find a single country that doesn’t have these problems. And in some cases you’ll see politicians have no control over it because of the magnitude of the situation. The middle east is constantly at war. I have to admit (even if I would like not to) that the world is still filled with people who’ll do wrong to others. And the technology and knowledge to do harm to others over the web exists. It’s very cheap, and it’s widely available to everyone. Even with all these advances we’re still very far away from what and evolved civilization would be. So, imagine that these security people truly are greedy people who would do anything to suit their needs. Even if they wanted to, do you think they would start to write viruses and invest time and money into this? And even worse risk being discovered by some ethical hacker and be ridiculed before the whole world? I think it wouldn’t be a smart move. In my opinion they don’t even have the necessity to do it. And given the case they do need to write viruses to stay on board, would they write them? I couldn’t answer, I would have to ask them.

It’s always a pleasure debating over the web :D

]]> By: Yago Nuchera http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8870 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:53:45 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8870 Hi Nicolas! Thanks for your comment, I stand corrected.
I overspoke when I said that GNU/Linux OS’s are SECURE. I should have said that they are abbysmally more secure than Microsoft’s products.
But let me also point out that the Windows market share figure is made up by the number of Microsoft OS’s CD/DVD sold plus the number of computers sold with Windows already installed. All of my 3 machines were bought with Windows on them but none of them run it any more. It simply is much, much easier to get a good machine with Windows on it than with any flavour of Linux. If all Linux users were like me (and I know for a fact that some of them are) is that 70% actually representative or is it just a way of bending the information for one’s purpose?
The main reason why GNU/Linux is inherently more secure is because it is Open Source, not just because the kernel is more robust and the adminstration of permissions prevents anyone from making any changes to the computer without the use of the administrator password. The Open Source community who’s constantly actively checking the health of the code is huge. Microsoft could never hire such amount of people to do the work that they get done in Linux. The cases you mention (iOS and Android) are OS’s that have taken a linux environment and added their own proprietary source code on top of it, which straight away weakens them to attacks.
I’m not saying Linux is invulnerable, god forbid, but it is much better prepared to cope with them with little or no effect on the user. Security companies like Mikko’s, benefit from the existence of weaknesses, so the question is: do they actually want to eradicate security issues in computers and, therefore, loose their jobs? I don’t think so. But then again, I am only human and known to be wrong.
In any case, I thank you again for reading what I have to say, I appreciate it.

Yago

]]> By: Nicolas Iragorri http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8857 Sat, 27 Aug 2011 07:04:08 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8857 Hi Yago!! Using Linux or OsX is not going to solve the problem. They are more secure and have less viruses than Windows but that doesn’t make them invulnerable to any attacks. The main reason there are so many viruses for windows pcs is that they have over 70% of the marketshare for pc operating systems, so hackers cover more ground by targetting pcs with windows. Do a search in Google and you’ll find that there are several viruses and hacks for ios and android which are based on os x and linux, mainly because they are used widely. Windows security IS worse but that doesn’t mean you can’t hack os x or linux. Technology hasn’t gotten to the point where a computer can detect amhacker perse, you have to rely on security mechanisms, policies and permissions, and most importantly a security profesional. That is at least for the time being.

]]> By: TED Talk | Just Got Hacked http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8780 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 07:11:16 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8780 [...] Questions and Answers on the TED blog:http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/ [...]

]]> By: Yago Nuchera http://blog.ted.com/2011/08/10/the-dangers-of-online-crime-qa-with-mikko-hypponen/comment-page-1/#comment-8724 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 23:12:29 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=51817#comment-8724 This whole interview is indeed very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the very fresh moments Mikko delighted us with in his talk, but something is not being said here, and that is that all of this talk about security is based on the fact that the majority of us are using a system that is really vulnerable to virus attacks. Why do we have to focus and deploy so much of our efforts and resources in fighting back and trying to catch the thieves not matter what, when it would be far cheaper and cleverer to just use a safer environment, one that is inherently secure from the kernel up like all GNU/Linux OS’s?
To me Mikko’s lecture sounds more like a spokesman from a security company in its attempt to spread fear so as to indoctrinate people into investing more in their field, rather than a real attempt to eradicate the problem.
Yago

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