Computer security world in mourning over death of Dan Kaminsky, aged 42

Celebrated information security researcher Dan Kaminsky, known not just for his technical ability but also for his compassion and support for those in his industry, has died. He was 42. Though Kaminsky rose to fame in 2008 for identifying a critical design weakness in the internet's infrastructure – and worked in secret with …

[diodesign]

Re: Twitter

It was more to show that there was a wide respect for Dan.

C.

[mihares]

Dang, opening El Reg to be hit by news of Dan’s death is really a bad way to start the day. But thanks for a very well written article.

He will be missed. A lot.

RIP

[Paul Johnston]

RIP

One of the good guys!

[A.P. Veening]

Re: RIP

Not only good but also great, a rather rare combination.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: RIP

Too true. Most good people are not great. But so many great people are not good. It hurts to lose one.

[Version 1.0]

Re: RIP

To simply say, "not only would that have been morally wrong, he didn't want his mom to have to visit him in prison" simply shows that his view of life was so much better than the majority of people - it's always been rare that people apply both factors. And his work seems to have been mostly showing people how their systems could fail - that's means that he was comfortable with the pressure they would have applied because he believed that he was doing good.

It is traditional to raise an offering, so a toast to you Dan.

[Anonymous Coward]

"most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"

Indeed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Pictures_hack

[anothercynic]

Whaaaat???

Noooooo! What a loss for the infosec community!

My condolences to the family, his friends and the industry who clearly appreciated him very much.

[Blackjack]

Ah yeah the CD musics install malware thing, I still have a few old music CDs that do that but Linux completely ignores the malware as it was done for Windows 98 I think?

[wolfetone]

I think it was as recent as Windows XP. I think I was using that when Sony decided to be arseholes about it.

[Blackjack]

Ah right I got a Gorillaz CD that tried to install crapware on Windows XP once, I just use a CD player instead.

[Bubba Von Braun]

Wow what a loss

Gone way way too soon, a true netizien, not doing things because of the dollars, but because its the right thing to do!

To have avoided the chaos that would have been wrought had the DNS issue became exploited this man certainly deserves addition to the Internet Hall of Fame on its own. Add to that his often selfless contributions, where does one sign the petition!!

Dan's insights will be missed and I pray more live up to his ethos, they have big shoes to fill.

BvB

[hayzoos]

Wow - RIP - We lost a fine one.

[GeekyDee]

RIP Dan, your spirit was rare. His response, "not only would that have been morally wrong, he didn't want his mom to have to visit him in prison" was what set him apart from, if not above, most of his peers. You, and your skills, will be missed.

[Sam Therapy]

RIP. Gone far too soon.

[AJNorth]

Dan Kaminsky, In Memoriam

In the words of the poet:

Loss, and Possession, Death and Life are one.

There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.

— Hilaire Belloc

From "On a Sundial" ("Sonnets and Verse," 1938).

[John Gamble]

And The Creator of the DanKam

Also the creator of the DanKam app, which enhanced certain colors for the colorblind. He created it after a Star Trek movie viewing with a friend who hadn't realized that one of the characters had green skin.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2010/12/15/security-guru-launches-iphone-app-to-hack-colorblindness/?sh=3cebcd442c2b

And on a sadder note, his family had to release a statement that he had died of complications from diabetes, to combat a particular anti-vax creep who had claimed that he had died of complications from the vaccine.

[JohnSheeran]

Diabetic ketoacidosis is such an avoidable tragedy. As a parent with a Type 1 Diabetic child, I've developed a pretty good understanding of the disease and getting so far gone with ketoacidosis is heart breaking. Modern medicine really does know how to handle that condition so it makes me sad to think that they didn't manage to catch it in time.

Regardless of Dan's significant place in the world, anyone succumbing to such a condition really does suck.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Just a note: The story doesn't mention, he died from complications of diabetes

All the tweets were "we are not talking about the cause of death to respect the family" which led to a lot of unfortunate speculation about suicide and then a rash of covid-vax conspiracy.

[Cederic]

The story does mention, although perhaps it's changed in the past five hours.