SAN FRANCISCO: As anyone who works in the depths of the internet will tell you, the internet is not a smooth, well-oiled machine. It's a messy patchwork.Much of it depends on open source software This file is thankfully maintained by a small number of volunteer programmers who fix bugs.
Last week, one of those programmers may have saved the Internet from major trouble.his name is Andres FreundHe is a 38-year-old software engineer living in San Francisco. microsoft. His work includes developing the open source database software known as PostgreSQL. Recently, while performing routine maintenance, Freund stumbled upon a backdoor hidden in software that is part of the Linux operating system.Backdoor could be a precursor to serious crime cyber attack.
Now, with a Hollywood-perfect twist, we're joining forces with technology leaders. Cyber security researcher He praises Freund as a hero. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO praised his “curiosity and craftsmanship.” Engineers are distributing old webcomics about how all modern digital infrastructure depends on a project maintained by some random guy in Nebraska. (In their stories, Freund is just a random guy.) Freund is actually a soft-spoken German-born programmer who declined to be photographed for this article, but has become an Internet folk hero. He said he lost his sense of direction. “I'm just an individual who sits in front of a computer and hacks code.”
The story began earlier this year when Freund was reviewing automated test logs and noticed some error messages he wasn't aware of. A few weeks later, while running some more tests at his home in Germany, he discovered that his application called SSH, used to log into computers remotely, was using more processing power than usual. I noticed that you are using . He identified an issue with a suite of data compression tools called xz Utils. (Don't worry if these names are Greek; all you really need to know is that they're all small parts of the Linux operating system.) The majority of the world's servers, including those used by Fortune 500 companies, run on Linux, making Linux security an important issue worldwide.) Freund from xz Utils A closer look at the source code revealed signs of deliberate tampering. In particular, he discovered that someone had embedded malicious code in the latest version of his xz Utils. Last week, Freund sent his findings to a group of open source software developers. This news set the technology world on fire. A fix was developed within hours, and some researchers credited him with thwarting a potentially historic cyberattack. “If the backdoor goes undetected, the master key to any of the hundreds of millions of computers around the world running SSH could be compromised by the backdoor,” said Alex Stamos, chief trust officer at cybersecurity research firm Sentinel One. It would have been given to the creator.”
No one knows who installed the backdoor. But the plot appears to have been so sophisticated that some researchers believe that only countries with formidable hacking techniques, such as Russia or China, could have attempted it. Freund said that since the findings were made public, he has been assisting teams in trying to reverse engineer the attacks and identify the culprits. “I don't have much time for celebratory drinks.”
Last week, one of those programmers may have saved the Internet from major trouble.his name is Andres FreundHe is a 38-year-old software engineer living in San Francisco. microsoft. His work includes developing the open source database software known as PostgreSQL. Recently, while performing routine maintenance, Freund stumbled upon a backdoor hidden in software that is part of the Linux operating system.Backdoor could be a precursor to serious crime cyber attack.
Now, with a Hollywood-perfect twist, we're joining forces with technology leaders. Cyber security researcher He praises Freund as a hero. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO praised his “curiosity and craftsmanship.” Engineers are distributing old webcomics about how all modern digital infrastructure depends on a project maintained by some random guy in Nebraska. (In their stories, Freund is just a random guy.) Freund is actually a soft-spoken German-born programmer who declined to be photographed for this article, but has become an Internet folk hero. He said he lost his sense of direction. “I'm just an individual who sits in front of a computer and hacks code.”
The story began earlier this year when Freund was reviewing automated test logs and noticed some error messages he wasn't aware of. A few weeks later, while running some more tests at his home in Germany, he discovered that his application called SSH, used to log into computers remotely, was using more processing power than usual. I noticed that you are using . He identified an issue with a suite of data compression tools called xz Utils. (Don't worry if these names are Greek; all you really need to know is that they're all small parts of the Linux operating system.) The majority of the world's servers, including those used by Fortune 500 companies, run on Linux, making Linux security an important issue worldwide.) Freund from xz Utils A closer look at the source code revealed signs of deliberate tampering. In particular, he discovered that someone had embedded malicious code in the latest version of his xz Utils. Last week, Freund sent his findings to a group of open source software developers. This news set the technology world on fire. A fix was developed within hours, and some researchers credited him with thwarting a potentially historic cyberattack. “If the backdoor goes undetected, the master key to any of the hundreds of millions of computers around the world running SSH could be compromised by the backdoor,” said Alex Stamos, chief trust officer at cybersecurity research firm Sentinel One. It would have been given to the creator.”
No one knows who installed the backdoor. But the plot appears to have been so sophisticated that some researchers believe that only countries with formidable hacking techniques, such as Russia or China, could have attempted it. Freund said that since the findings were made public, he has been assisting teams in trying to reverse engineer the attacks and identify the culprits. “I don't have much time for celebratory drinks.”
