F-Secure are a company based in Finland that specialise in cybersecurity… one that has almost been named for one purpose, to bring down F_Society. If anyone can take down Elliot, Mr Robot and Tyrell Wellick… Mikko Hypönnen, Chief Research Officer for F-Secure since 1991 can…
And just like Tyrell, he’s from Scandinavia, where (going by Joanna Wellick) the wives are like the winters – harsh and cold but beautiful!
But that’s not the only thing he shares in common with Tyrell. Mikko not only has a genius mind for cybercrime – just like actor Martin Wallström, his name features an umlaut; meaning their names are actually pronounced Mikko Hypooooeeeerrrrianan and Martin Wallstruuuuuuuhhhhhm. You can’t make an umlaut without breaking eggs.
Martin Wallstruuuuuuuhhhhhm The Fouuuuuuuuuurrrrrth. Junioooooooor
Born in 1969, Mikko has lectured at Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge, written for the New York Times, Wired and Scientific America and is considered one of the 50 most important people on the web (PC World magazine) and was included in the FP Global 100 Thinkers list.
He might look like a high school science teacher, but this man has the skillz to save the world!
Mikko travels the world advising, writing and talking on cybercrime and has delivered the most watched computer security talk on the internet.
If we had to choose a nickname, it would be “Colonel Panic”
In this TED Talk, he talks about the three types of online threat – criminals, hacking groups and governments. Of course, with their black hoodies, questionable activities and hijabs Elliot, Tyrell, Trenton and F_Society are portrayed as the real criminal masterminds, but the NSA and other country’s security agencies are way, way ahead of them!
Despite looking quite serious (wearing a blazer means serious to us!) and coming from the corporate world, the more we watch of him, the more we think he might jump ship from F-Secure to F_Society, like a certain FBI agent.
Mr Robot Hacks loves this guy almost as much as we love Dominique DiPierro!
He also opens with a fascinating fact that we here at Mr Robot Hacks had no clue of…
We could (okay, we admit it, we often do!) sit and watch these Ted Talks for hours on end! In this one, Mikko explains how:
“Recent events have highlighted, underlined and bolded the fact that the United States is performing blanket surveillance on any foreigner whose data passes through an American entity — whether they are suspected of wrongdoing or not. This means that, essentially, every international user of the internet is being watched, says Mikko Hypponen. An important rant, wrapped with a plea: to find alternative solutions to using American companies for the world’s information needs.”
And finally, the fervent Finn talks us through fight-ing firses… Sorry, I thought I was watching an episode of Vikings. I mean viruses.
We’re off to buy a new printer, with a filed-down VPN number from a hardened cyber criminal.
We’ll see you very soon with some more tech and Mr Robot treats, you lucky people! 😉