Programming is a fairly common profession. However, truly talented people are still lacking. It is among them that Mark Russinovich, a man who forever entered his name in the list of giants of the computer industry.
Russinovich's biography
It may seem strange, but Mark Russinovich is almost unknown in Russia. At the same time, this is a world-famous programmer who has repeatedly entered the Tops of Programmers and created modern views on software.
Russinovich was born in Spain in 1966. Later, his family moved to America and Mark received US citizenship. Little is known about his childhood and youth. Much more information about education and professional activities.
Mark Russinovich is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and holds a Ph. D. in computing. After graduating from university, Mark continued to work in a given direction and got a job as an operating systems expert at IBM. Having not stayed there for a long time, but having gained some experience, in 1996, together with Bryce Cogswell, Rusinovich opens his own company,dubbed Winternals Software LP and dedicated to software.
Mark Russinovich Utilities
The activities of Mark and his associates focused on the creation of free software for diagnosing and administering MS Windows. The company was not lacking in fresh ideas and soon their programs began to qualitatively differ from competitors. Soon, their company's products began to be distributed via the Internet on a paid basis.
Working at Microsoft
Microsoft couldn't ignore Winternals Software, appreciating Mark Russinovich's programs. By 2006, Mark's utilities were so popular and needed that Microsoft realized they needed someone like Mark to improve their system. Microsoft bought Winternals Software, which, of course, put some restrictions on Mark's work: for example, he stopped developing utilities for Linux and refused to work on programs that damage Microsoft's reputation.
Otherwise, the merger of the giant with a young developing company had a positive impact on the activities of the latter. Mark Russinovich himself said that the merger will not affect the company in any way, and it will continue to operate as usual.
At Microsoft, Russinovich received the position of a member of the corporation's technical council, and is on it to this day. Its scope of work includes the creation of "rootkits" andoperating system security.
Russinovich-related scandals
Thanks to Mark's activities, the broad masses learned about such a thing as a "rootkit". Rootkits are spyware that allow you to quietly control your computer.
In 2005, while testing newly developed vulnerability detection software on his home computer, Mark noticed suspicious activity. He was very surprised, as he was always extremely careful when installing software on his computer. Having figured it out, he came to the conclusion that the "rootkit" got on his computer through a licensed disk from Sony. And this happened not by mistake or negligence, but quite intentionally - in such an illegal way, Sony controlled the distribution of its programs.
After examining the internals of Windows, Mark Russinovich managed to remove the "rootkit" and immediately blogged about his sudden discovery. The news that corporations could deliberately distribute malicious software that is difficult to detect and remove quickly spread across the Internet. At the trial against Sony, Mark acted as an expert and unexpectedly became famous in the IT field.
Achievements
In addition to working on computer security and popularizing the problem of "rootkits" and malware on official software, Mark has many other achievements. To dateRussinovich is a lead programmer and successful writer, a leading expert in operating system design and architecture, and an expert on Windows internals. He has many other achievements to his credit, for example:
- in 2006, Mark Russinovich entered the Top 5 best hackers on the planet according to eWeek magazine;
- Mark's company has developed more than 60 programs for Windows;
- Mark is the author of several best-selling books on how operating systems work;
- Mark is the most read blogger working for Microsoft.
