Why do we need 'accidental heroes' to deal with global cyber-attacks? | Evgeny Morozov

Big tech firms say they are the only providers of large cybersecurity services - even as their products are compromised. The conflict of interest is huge

To appreciate the perversity of our reliance on US technology giants, you just need to grapple with the fact that one of the likely winners in the global "cyber-outage" - caused by the series of crippling cyber-attacks that hit public and private institutions worldwide a week ago - might be the very company whose software was compromised - Microsoft.

The WannaCry ransomware used in the attack wreaked havoc on organisations including FedEx and Telefonica, as well as the NHS, where operations were cancelled, x-rays, test results and patient records became unavailable and phones did not work. In the end the global spread of the attack was halted by an "accidental hero", a 22-year-old IT security blogger from Ilfracombe, Devon. Marcus Hutchins found and inadvertently activated a "kill switch" in the malware by registering a specific domain name hidden within the program.