INTERVIEW: World's leading cyber security expert talks privacy, surveillance, governmental malware
There is widespread understanding in Estonia that world's first cyber war was waged between Estonia and Russia during the Bronze Night affair. In the opinion of Finnish computer security expert Mikko Hyppönen, the 2007 incident was indeed a watershed moment in history, but rather than calling it a war, it should be likened to "cyber street riots."
ERR's weekly investigative program "Pealtnägija" interviewed Hyppönen in Tallinn. ERR News publishes the interview in full.
Hypönnen and journalist Mihkel Kärmas talked about Edward Snowden, Wikileaks and its implications on intelligence and ethics, global IT security, privacy issues and online marketing, Kaspersky antivirus software from Russia, FinFisher software used for government surveillance, StuxNet cyber attack against Iran, WiFi-connected toasters and many other topics.
On a lighter note, Hypönnen also dispensed some everyday hacks to increase one's personal security. "It's a bad idea to put a sticker on your webcam. It's a much better idea to put a band-aid on your webcam," Hyppönen said, adding that if you then need to use your webcam "you can just remove the band-aid and it won't leave any glue on your webcam."
Hyppönen is the chief research officer for F-Secure, an online security and privacy company based in Helsinki, Finland, and a columnist. In 2011, he was ranked 61st in Foreign Policy 's Top 100 Global Thinkers report.
Editor: M. Oll
