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Microsoft Programmer Thwarted Global Cyberattack – NYT

The engineer found a piece of malicious code that would allow a hacker to secretly run their own code on computers all over the world


China has blamed the US for a server attack on one of its state universities.
A man takes part in a hacking contest during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas. Photo: Reuters

 

A Microsoft engineer is being hailed a hero after spotting a hidden ‘backdoor’ that could have been the prelude to an unprecedented cyberattack, the New York Times reported, targeting computers all over the world.

The programmer, who was doing some routine maintenance, inadvertently found the piece of software in the Linux operating system.

The German-born San Francisco engineer discovered someone had planted malicious code, known as a backdoor, that would allow its creator to hijack a user’s SSH connection – a network protocol that gives users, particularly system administrators, a secure way to access a computer over an unsecured networkand secretly run their own code on that user’s machine.

Read the full story: The New York Times

 

  • By Sean O’Meara

 

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Sean O'Meara

Sean O'Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.