How a Spanish virus introduced Google to Málaga

After 33 years, Bernardo Quintero determined it was time to discover the one that modified his life — the nameless programmer who created a pc virus that had contaminated his college a long time earlier.

The virus, known as Virus Málaga, was largely innocent. However the problem of defeating it sparked Quintero’s ardour for cybersecurity, ultimately main him to discovered VirusTotal, a startup that Google acquired in 2012. That acquisition introduced Google’s flagship European cybersecurity heart to Málaga, reworking the Spanish metropolis right into a tech hub.

All due to a small malware program created by somebody whose id Quintero had by no means identified. Moved by nostalgia and gratitude, Quintero launched a search earlier this yr. He requested Spanish media retailers to amplify his quest for ideas. He dove again into the virus’s code, in search of clues his 18-year-old self may need missed. And he ultimately solved the thriller, sharing the bittersweet decision in a LinkedIn post that went viral.

The story begins in 1992, when a younger Quintero was prompted by a trainer to create an antivirus for the 2610-byte program that had unfold throughout the computer systems of Málaga’s Polytechnic College. “That problem in my first yr at college sparked a deep curiosity in laptop viruses and safety, and with out it my path may need been very completely different,” Quintero advised TechCrunch.

Quintero’s search was aided by his programmer instincts. Earlier this yr, he stepped down from his workforce supervisor function to “return to the cave, to the basement of Google.” He didn’t go away the firm; as an alternative, he went again to tinkering and experimenting with out managerial duties.

That tinkering mindset additionally led him to reexamine Virus Málaga and search for details he’d missed years earlier. First, he discovered fragments of a signature, however thanks to one other safety knowledgeable, he found a later variant of the virus with a a lot clearer cue: “KIKESOYYO.” “Kike soy yo” would translate to “I’m Kike,” a standard nickname for “Enrique.” 

Round the identical time, Quintero acquired a direct message from a person who is now the basic digital transformation coordinator for the Spanish metropolis of Cordoba and who claimed he witnessed one in all his Polytechnic College classmates create the virus. Many details added up, however one stood out specifically: the man knew that the virus’s hidden message — known as a payload, in cybersecurity phrases — was a press release condemning the Basque terrorist group ETA, a indisputable fact that Quintero had by no means disclosed.

The tipster then gave Quintero a reputation — Antonio Astorga — but additionally shared the information that he had handed away. 

This hit Quintero like a ton of bricks; now, he would by no means have the opportunity to ask Antonio about “Kike.” However he stored following the thread, and the plot twist got here from Antonio’s sister, who revealed that his first title was truly Antonio Enrique. To his household, he was Kike.

Most cancers took away Antonio Enrique Astorga before Quintero may thank him in particular person, however the story doesn’t cease right here. Quintero’s LinkedIn put up sheds new gentle to the legacy of “a superb colleague who deserves to be acknowledged as a pioneer of cybersecurity in Málaga” — and not only for serving to Quintero uncover his vocation.

In accordance to his buddy, Astorga’s virus had no different purpose than spreading his anti-terrorist message and proving himself as a programmer. Mirroring Quintero’s path, Astorga’s curiosity in IT endured, and he turned a computing trainer at a secondary faculty that named its IT classroom after him in his reminiscence. 

Astorga’s legacy additionally lives on past these partitions, and not simply by means of his college students. One in every of his sons, Sergio, is a current software program engineering graduate with an curiosity in cybersecurity and quantum computing — a significant connection for Quintero. “Having the ability to shut that circle now, and to see new generations constructing on it, is deeply significant to me,” Quintero stated.

For Quintero, who suspects their paths will cross once more, Sergio is “very consultant of the expertise being shaped in Málaga at the moment.” This, in flip, is a results of VirusTotal forming the root of what ultimately became the Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) and spearheading collaborations with the College of Málaga that made the metropolis a real cybersecurity expertise hub.