This article was published on July 20, 2011

Mikko Hyppönen’s brilliant TED talk on fighting online crime


Mikko Hyppönen’s brilliant TED talk on fighting online crime

Our generation will be remembered as the generation that got online. The generation that built something really and truly global.

-Computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen

The Internet has very serious problems with both security and privacy. The PC Virus problem is 25 years old and today 65% of us are online crime victims. As we load more of our personal information online, and rely on it more for our day to day functions, security and privacy have never been so important.

Last week, international cybersecurity expert and F-Secure chief research officer gave a TED Global talk on fighting online criminals and his career as a defender of the net. In just 24 hours, the video has already received over 100,000 views. Hyppönen, who’s been described in US government documents on Wikileaks as an “infosec rock star” has helped bust international cybercrime rings his entire career.

After Hyppönen posted his TED Talk on Reddit, one user responded:

Hey, I was one of the millions of people watching it live through TED Global from Romania. Your talk was one of the best of the week. I’m a young computer science student and…have always been at the cross between hacking and cracking. Whether to use my skills for good or for bad and I can truly say your talk made me realize that it’s much more rewarding and interesting to be the the one catching the bad guys rather than to be a bad guy myself. You are a great man. Thank you for inspiring me to do more good on the web.

Hyppönen’s TED talk highlights our role as the first truly ‘online’ generation and how we have to deal with an entire ecosystem built around online crime. How do you track online criminals? And how can we be prepared when the things we take for granted (computers) aren’t there?
And what we need to find criminal gangs.

Watch his TED Talk here:

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