How a Spanish virus brought Google to Málaga

How a Spanish virus brought Google to Málaga

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

The virus, called Virus Málaga, was largely innocent. But the challenge of defeating it sparked Quintero’s ardour for cybersecurity, finally main him to discovered VirusTotal, a startup that Google acquired in 2012. That acquisition brought Google’s flagship European cybersecurity heart to Málaga, remodeling the Spanish metropolis into a tech hub.

All because of a small malware program created by somebody whose id Quintero had never recognized.
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, searching for clues his 18-year-old self might need missed. And he finally 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 instructor to create an antivirus for the 2610-byte program that had unfold across the computer systems of Málaga’s Polytechnic School. “That challenge in my first year at university sparked a deep interest in computer viruses and security, and without it my path might have been very different,” Quintero told TechCrunch.

Quintero’s search was aided by his programmer instincts. Earlier this yr, he stepped down from his team supervisor function to “go back to the cave, to the basement of Google.” He didn’t go away the company; instead, he went again to tinkering and experimenting without managerial duties.

That tinkering mindset also led him to reexamine Virus Málaga and search for particulars that his 18-year-old self would have missed. First, he discovered fragments of a signature, however thanks to another safety skilled, he found a later variant of the virus with a a lot clearer cue: “KIKESOYYO.” “Kike soy yo” would translate to “I am Kike,” a frequent nickname for “Enrique.” 

Around the same time, Quintero obtained a direct message from a man who’s now the basic digital transformation coordinator for the Spanish metropolis of Cordoba and who claimed he witnessed one in every of his Polytechnic School classmates created the virus. Many particulars added up, however one stood out particularly: he knew that the virus’s hidden message — called a payload, in cybersecurity phrases — was a assertion condemning the Basque terrorist group ETA, a fact that Quintero had never disclosed.

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The tipster then gave Quintero a identify — Antonio Astorga — however also shared the news that he had handed away. 

This hit Quintero like a ton of bricks; now, he would never have the ability to ask Antonio about “Kike.” But he saved following the thread, and the plot twist got here from Antonio’s sister, who revealed that his first identify was really Antonio Enrique. To his household, he was Kike.

Cancer took away Antonio Enrique Astorga before Quintero may thank him in particular person, however the story doesn’t cease right here. Quintero’s LinkedIn submit sheds new light to the legacy of “a brilliant colleague who deserves to be recognized as a pioneer of cybersecurity in Málaga” — and never just for serving to Quintero uncover his vocation.

According to his good friend, Astorga’s virus had no other aim 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 instructor at a secondary college that named its IT classroom after him in his reminiscence. 

Astorga’s legacy also lives on past these partitions, and never just by way of his college students. One of his sons, Sergio, is a latest software engineering graduate with an curiosity in cybersecurity and quantum computing — a significant connection for Quintero. “Being able to close that circle now, and to see new generations building on it, is deeply meaningful to me,” Quintero said.

For Quintero, who suspects their paths will cross again, Sergio is “very representative of the talent being formed in Málaga today.” This, in flip, is a result of VirusTotal forming the root of what finally grew to become the Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) and spearheading collaborations with the University of Málaga that made the metropolis a true cybersecurity expertise hub.

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