Mikko Hyppönen

Global security expert, researcher and author Mikko Hyppönen offers startlingly insightful discussion about the best – and worst – things that the internet has brought to our door. Mikko Hyppönen is worldwide authority on information security and online privacy. He has been investigating cybercrime for over 30 years. Hyppönen acts as an advisor to EUROPOL and has lectured at the Universities of Oxford, Stanford and Cambridge. Hyppönen also acts as the curator of the Internet Archive malware museum. Mikko works as the Chief Research Officer of WithSecure and the Principal Research Advisor of F-Secure. In his latest book “If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable” (Wiley 2022), Mikko explores the potential that the internet has for our future and what are the biggest risks for our online lives. Popular topics: Fighting Online Crime We’ve lived our lives in the middle of a revolution: the internet revolution. During our lifetime, all computers started talking to each other over the internet. Technology around us is changing faster than ever. We’ve already become dependent of our digital devices, and this is just the beginning. As connected devices open new opportunities for imagination, they also open new opportunities for online criminals. Where are we today? Where are we going? And how are we ever going to secure ten billion new devices that will be going online over the next decade? Hacking, Hackers and Online Criminals Computer security has gone through several distinct eras. Attacks morph and change every few years. However, the biggest changes we’ve seen have not been technical; they’ve been social. It’s all about the attackers and their motives. To survive, companies need to understand the risks they face. What are the criminal attackers doing today? What about the hacktivists? And why do we see more and more malware written by governments? Do terrorist groups have credible online attack capability? And what can you do to protect your network? The future of money, banking and finance Data is money. The world of finance is now changing faster than ever, due to the digital revolution. Cryptocurrencies and blockchains bring us benefits but also huge problems in the shape of money laundering, online crime and rampant energy use. What’s happening next? Where are we going? Cyber War Technology shapes our conflicts and crisis. Technology shapes the wars we fight. Cyber has become the 5th domain in which we fight our wars: land war, sea war, air war, space war – and now, cyberspace war. Today, all nations build cyber defences but also offensive cyber technology. We are in the beginning of the next arms race. The future of the internet Our societies run on computers and software. How does a power plant in Japan trust the logic controllers they bought from a Germany, the routers they bought from China, the workstations they bought from USA and the security system they bought from Russia? It all boils down to trust. Trust. That’s a complicated concept in the internet age. Without trust, we won’t have safety. Without safety, we won’t have security. And without security, we won’t have anything at all. The Best and the Worst innovation of our time Technology shapes the world. The more successful a new technology becomes, the more reliant we will become of it. This has always happened and will happen in the future too. In many ways, internet is the best and worst innovation done during our lifetime. We were all given a free and open internet, but what kind of an internet will we be leaving behind? Our global networks are being threatened by surveillance and crime. How did we get here? And where will we go next? Artificial intelligence and online security Machine learning and artificial intelligence are changing the world. They can be enormous catalysts for good, but also for bad. Security companies have been using machine learning for enhanced security systems for years, but the real question is: when will the attackers start using this technology to write malware for them or to break i to servers? Is there a new arms race looming, with good AI hunting bad AI? Teemat: Network Status | Weaponry Online | Network Next Revolution | Security Today