How a Spanish virus introduced Google to Málaga

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

The virus, referred to 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 recognized. Moved by nostalgia and gratitude, Quintero launched a search earlier this 12 months. He requested Spanish media shops to amplify his quest for ideas. He dove again into the virus’s code, in search of clues his 18-year-old self might need missed. And he ultimately solved the thriller, sharing the bittersweet decision in a LinkedIn submit 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 12 months at college sparked a deep curiosity in laptop viruses and safety, and with out it my path might need been very totally different,” Quintero instructed TechCrunch.

Quintero’s search was aided by his programmer instincts. Earlier this 12 months, he stepped down from his staff supervisor position to “return to the cave, to the basement of Google.” He didn’t depart the corporate; 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 particulars he’d missed years earlier. First, he discovered fragments of a signature, however thanks to a different safety skilled, 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.” 

Across the similar time, Quintero obtained a direct message from a person who’s now the final digital transformation coordinator for the Spanish metropolis of Cordoba and who claimed he witnessed one among his Polytechnic College classmates create the virus. Many particulars added up, however one stood out specifically: the person knew that the virus’s hidden message — referred to 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 in addition shared the information that he had handed away. 

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

Most cancers took away Antonio Enrique Astorga earlier than Quintero may thank him in individual, however the story doesn’t cease right here. Quintero’s LinkedIn submit sheds new mild to the legacy of “a superb colleague who deserves to be acknowledged as a pioneer of cybersecurity in Málaga” — and never only for serving to Quintero uncover his vocation.

In accordance with his good friend, 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 grew to become a computing trainer at a secondary college that named its IT classroom after him in his reminiscence. 

Astorga’s legacy additionally lives on past these partitions, and never simply by way of his college students. One in all 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 fashioned in Málaga at this time.” This, in flip, is a results of VirusTotal forming the basis of what ultimately grew to become the Google Security Engineering Heart (GSEC) and spearheading collaborations with the College of Málaga that made the town a real cybersecurity expertise hub.