CWHK: What changes have you seen in the computer security landscape?
Mikko Hypp'nen: When I joined F-Secure in 1991, there were 300 computer viruses in the world. Now there are about 140,000.
Of those 300 1991-era viruses, most were on floppy discs. If you compare the spreading speeds of those old viruses to the spreading speeds of these mobile [phone] viruses, they both started to spread when people traveled with either floppies or mobile phones. With a Bluetooth mobile virus, it jumps from Hong Kong to Helsinki when somebody flies between those cities, with their mobile phone. It's interesting: 15 years later, we're almost back at the same place.
CWHK:What operating systems were being targeted back in '91?
MH: DOS, and Mac OS. In the mid-eighties, people thought that the computer virus problem was only a Mac problem, because back then there were zero PC viruses. Right now, Mac OS X: zero viruses, you don't need an antivirus at all. And PC, 140,000.