A Tale of Two Floppies: the basics of cybersecurity. | Eddy Willems | TEDxKULeuven

What have ransomware, an airport, 2 diskettes, and cybersecurity in common?
Some people want to become pilots, some people want to be doctors. We all have our own dreams. But what if your dream actually comes true? This lecture will take you back to a pivotal stage in the life of Eddy Willems more than 30 years ago. Eddy will tell you two stories of how two different diskettes changed his life forever. The first one, the AIDS Information diskette, even turns up in history books and museums from time to time. The second one infected his mind in some way and drove him into his daily job of helping people by communicating (and giving lectures about) the cyberdangers around us, alerting us to all kinds of risks to the public in general, and ultimately trying to make the world a safer and maybe better place. These diskettes could maybe change your life in the future.
Eddy Willems is a worldwide recognized cybersecurity expert!
Currently, he is a board member of 3 security industry organizations (EICAR, LSEC, AVAR), Global Security Officer, and the resident Security Evangelist at G DATA CyberDefense AG.
In his current role, he gives presentations and seminars all over the world. Several online and broadcasting media use his advice regularly.
He published his first Dutch book ‘Cybergevaar’ in 2013 followed by a German and English translation ‘Cyber danger’.
He is also co-author of the Dutch SF cyberthriller ‘Het Virus’ published in 2020. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@albinachatton4390]

a talk i didnt know i needed so very much

[@bellemaba]

0:47 Eddy seems like such a sweetheart!!

[@savannahskylar]

I can't imagine how cool it would be for Eddy, to have been right there from the start of things all the way up to now, to have seen all the progress and evolution of computers and cyber security... it must be really satisfying to be able to say, hey, I was there right from the beginning and I'm still here now

[@WEisMEnow]

Cybersecurity is a hot topic right now so this talk is timely. can't believe I am the 1st comment...

[@jacobydusar]

Wow, thanks for sending me the link, we should show this to IT at work.

[@phillipnorris3rd]

thanks also W

[@DementiaAcerbus]

KZbin algorithm must've not liked it for a long time. Just saw it myself and I have a pretty strong interest in cybersecurity established on here

[@mylittlesoulishappy]

Oh no hahaha the story about the airport! I knew exactly what was coming, gosh what an awful feeling.

[@davinachilds]

Can you imagine??

[@guidolazzaro1396]

Yes, people need to know the basics, and then some.

[@moanaoloha]

This is one of those rare TEDs where I didn't even care about the point and was just enjoying the stories

[@EddyWillems]

Nice to hear that you enjoyed the stories!

[@easyrider9366]

same, dude has a great voice

[@thomaspowell3rd]

It's amazing how far the internet has come and how we've come along with it... yet there are still people finding ways to exploit our systems and make money from that. Can you imagine of those people put their smarts and skills towards something helpful?

[@geekmuralin]

Thank you very much sir

[@novasux5681]

Thank you Eddy for this talk which comes at a time when more ordinary folks are being targeted by hackers.

[@mymotivationsnow]

I had to chuckle when I saw the title. It's been a long time since I've heard someone talk about a floppy.

[@wadecampster]

Loving these stories Eddy, I bet you have so many more too!

[@jasesyter]

This is too funny Eddy, loved the airport story 😂😂😂😂

[@toxic_sxgur]

I know it's off topic but when he said his first REAL story happened it made me pause and think about my own experiences and what makes something a REAL story, and that's pretty cool!

[@ishathalwar]

Good subject in today's age. I mean how many times have I just skipped by and not worried online?

[@EddyWillems]

Good to see that you liked my talk! I hope I have given you a good tip to solve (partly) the cybersecurity problem.

[@jonrhome]

Wow, great talk. that airport story was really something.

[@dudley4318]

Watching this and the little thing popped up saying my anti virus has expired - I've been ignoring it for weeks but I think Eddy just inspired me to renew 😅😅

[@thedeepfocus]

A wave of nostalgia came over me when I saw that old schoold DOS font... Wow.

[@theoscarnunez]

Never had my data hijacked thank goodness. Thanks Norton.

[@schalomtaylor9448]

Wow, the fact that in 1989, scammers were still playing on the fear that was being whipped up by the media. I remember very well what was happening in the 80's and I can only imagine this added to distress for some people

[@edsaxton1797]

Yes I'm guilty of agreeing to things without reading the fine print. Thanks for your warning Eddy I will be reading everything from now on.

[@nadiaferchichi]

Great talk Eddy, I don't think people realize how far we've come in terms of internet security, the threats we used to face and just how large the scale of damage could be

[@yassacrown]

This is a great talk Eddy, could listen to you all day!

[@EddyWillems]

Thanks Yassa, nice to hear you liked my talk!

[@trustfactornow]

This talk is hilarious Eddy, particularly the bit in the airport lol I can't imagine how you must have felt walking back through the next day

[@bryceaustinshields]

There's danger in anything we do! Be it online or IRL. All we can do is know how to identify a risk. Thanks for giving us a little help in doing so Eddy.

[@EddyWillems]

Thanks Bryce, nice to hear I've given you a little help!

[@helenimnotready]

I can so relate to Eddy's experience of wanting to be a surgeon and fainting at the sight of blood. I even tried hypnosis.

[@verapatrizio]

yep, encryption is essential.

[@eleanorrigbywhatdoesitmean]

Eddy's accent was tricky to follow in the beginning but once I tuned in, it was informative.

[@robertjennings397]

Is it Flanders?

[@jacobydusar]

Thanks Eddy, I will read the license agreement and abide by its terms.

[@EddyWillems]

Thanks for watching my talk. Most people don’t read the EULA and this can be a problem however the talk goes much further and explains more in detail that human behaviour is always one of the most underestimated factors when cybercrime is popping up. Also, the EULA (End User License Agreement) mentioned in this talk has been misused to 'legalize' the behaviour of the diskette.

[@ishathalwar]

@@EddyWillems great points....

[@TheRubenZepeda]

Eddy followed his childhood fascination of working with computers and programming, cool.

[@EddyWillems]

Thanks for watching! I hope I inspired you in some way! ;-)

[@vivianpatgreen]

I can relate to having my computer hacked and my data held to ransom. Not a good feeling.

[@aliayvance]

Some of this may have gone over my head but the take home message is to secure your data.

[@katiaromanow]

Yes, I'm guilty of not reading the user licence and all that fine print. It would be much easier if they used pictures and make them colourful and big.

[@shift-change]

Man hearing that first story about the ransomware I really flashed on how easy it would have been back then to scam people out of there money. Glad there's been some progress made on that front

[@logan-steele]

Being hacked is becoming much more common today. And the feeling of helplessness is horrible. Like when your home is robbed.

[@gaiasardoni]

yes it's happened to me and it's awful!

[@real_name_hidden577]

I've never made that comparison but yeah I guess that's true

[@beitrissavinsky]

Most of us can identify with Eddy at the 3:04 minute mark. The sheer disbelief that not only can't you access your data but someone wants money to give it back to you.

[@EddyWillems]

Indeed, independent figures from 'Statista' are showing that we got over 300 million ransomware attacks worldwide in 2020 and over 623 million ransomware attacks in 2021 and our predictions are going into the same directions for the next years...so most of us can indeed identify with that fragment unfortunately.

[@anonisanonymous]

it really seems like it was the wild west back then lol I'm glad things have evolved a little bit

[@EddyWillems]

A lot has evolved but still a lot hasn't ...

[@gavin-morris]

Ahhh the good old days of desktop computers and dial-up internet....

[@jycintabrown]

A bit rambling but thanks for the advice Eddy

[@EddyWillems]

Hi Jycinta, nice to hear that you liked it ... it was recorded during the COVID years with no public, that made it a little bit different as I normally really 'need' the public to react on it otherwise it would have been much better. ;-)

[@svetlanavstarceva]

I don't really know how important it is to take cyber security seriously. Like when your antivirus expires and you start getting those pop up adds saying they've blocked 174 potential threats in the last hour. Is that actually for real??

[@kotakgmasuk]

The story at the airport makes me so mad lol why don't authority figures just _listen??_ Honestly it would save so much trouble. But then again I guess it's hard to know who should and shouldn't be believed... and I suppose back then it may have been a lot more difficult to verify if people actually were who they said.

[@ashgadah]

I remember growing up with an old computer and just thinking it was normal for it to have a bunch of minor viruses and just take a million years to start....

[@jorenduran]

Once again I have to admit to randomly clicking on every link that comes my way. The last time I did that I got scammed by hackers pretending to be Microsoft service centre. Won't be clicking on anything unknown again, ever.

[@real_name_hidden577]

yeah you kind of had it coming didn't you?

[@janegeegeehogge]

CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THE BIGGGEST CORPORATIONS ALL SHARE THE SAME CLOUD ?! Surely that is a HUGE issue in case of a breach!!

[@real_name_hidden577]

This is exactly why you can't trust anybody on the internet!

[@hinicetrygoodbye]

Eddy must have been laughing inside when he realised he was the cause of the virus at the airport, too funny.

[@arianaasherton]

So you're saying I should take those pop-ups saying my security has run out a bit more seriously? 😅

[@lilygrander]

I didn't know about the "white list" either Eddy. I kinda have my fingers crossed my anti-virus programme knows what it's doing.

[@EddyWillems]

It's actually the WildList. ;-)

[@mindfulmeditationsforall]

Ok now how many of us read the all the way through to the end of the user licence,? Be honest.