Joanna Rutkowska facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Joanna Rutkowska
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Joanna Rutkowska in May 2018
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| Born | 1981 Warsaw
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| Nationality | Polish |
| Education | Warsaw University of Technology; Master's Degree in Computer Science |
| Occupation | Security researcher; CEO/Founder of Invisible Things Labs |
| Employer | Invisible Things Labs |
| Known for | Blue Pill, Evil Maid attack, Qubes OS |
Joanna Rutkowska (born 1981 in Warsaw) is a Polish computer security expert. She is well-known for her work on keeping computers safe at a very basic level. She also created Qubes OS, a special computer operating system focused on security.
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Joanna Rutkowska's Work
Joanna became famous in the computer security world in 2006. At a big conference called Black Hat Briefings, she showed a new way to attack Windows Vista. She also introduced a method called "Blue Pill". This method used special computer hardware to move a running operating system into a virtual machine. This made it very hard to detect.
Because of her research, eWeek Magazine named her one of "Five Hackers who Put a Mark on 2006".
Focus on Deep Security
In the years that followed, Joanna kept working on "low-level" security. This means looking at the very basic parts of how computers work to find weaknesses.
In 2007, she showed that some ways of copying computer memory were not safe. She proved they could be tricked. Later that year, she and her team member Alexander Tereshkin shared more research. They looked into malware that uses virtual machines.
In 2008, Joanna and her team studied the security of something called Xen hypervisor. This is software that creates virtual machines. In 2009, with Rafal Wojtczuk, she found a way to attack Intel's security features. These features are built into computer chips.
Invisible Things Lab and Qubes OS
In April 2007, Joanna started her own company in Warsaw, Poland. It is called Invisible Things Lab. Her company focuses on making operating systems and virtual machine software more secure. They also offer advice to other companies.
In 2009, she came up with the idea of an "evil maid attack". This is a clever way someone could get your encrypted data. They could do this by changing your computer's basic software using a USB drive. This could happen if they had physical access to your computer, like a "maid" in a hotel room.
In 2010, Joanna and Rafal Wojtczuk started working on a new project. They created Qubes OS. This is a special desktop operating system built for security. It uses Fedora Linux and the Xen system.
The first version of Qubes OS came out in 2012. Its main idea is "security by compartmentalization". This means it separates different parts of your computer work into small, isolated sections. Each section is like a tiny, separate computer. These sections are called "Qubes".
Qubes OS is known as a "reasonably secure operating system". Many experts in privacy and security have praised it. It is special because it uses research on known computer weaknesses. Most common operating systems do not fix these issues.
Sharing Knowledge
Joanna has written important papers about how much we can trust computer systems. Some of her recent works include "Intel x86 Considered Harmful". She also wrote "State Considered Harmful - A Proposal for a Stateless Laptop".
She is often asked to speak at major security conferences. These include Chaos Communication Congress, Black Hat Briefings, and RSA Conference. She shares her knowledge with other experts around the world.
See also
In Spanish: Joanna Rutkowska para niños
