Vietnamese duo among world’s top 100 Microsoft security researchers

The two work at the Viettel Network Security Center on detecting vulnerabilities in the company’s system.

Hung has found three new weak points in the Windows platform, including one in the operating system which allows hackers to take control of the computer and collect user information.

This vulnerability affects both Windows 7 and Windows 10, the two most popular operating systems in the world today and used on billions of installed devices. According to Microsoft, this is a near-fatal flaw, just below the "Critical" rating on its four-tiered risk hierarchy.

Thanh, a student of a technology university, discovered an "error in the graphical interface of Windows" which is related to the display image on the user's screen. The vulnerability makes it easy for hackers to break into the user's computer to get important information such as personal information, bank accounts, social networking accounts, etc.

According to Microsoft, the error in the graphical interface of Windows is highly dangerous. If hackers exploit this, they can quickly attack and take control of the entire computer operating system.

Tran Tien Hung is ranked 88th and Do Quang Thanh, nickname Nyaacate, 97th.

At the annual Black Hat Conference, Microsoft announced its top 100 security researchers. It also has thousands of others at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC).

Microsoft’s Technet blog, where the top 100 was announced, expresses the tech giant’s appreciation of all the work and partnerships of the researchers with the security community over the years.

The announcement said: "This is a good annual reflection point on the past year’s contributions. Keep up the great work and we look forward to hearing from you this year too."

To create the list, Microsoft started evaluating all submissions from July 1 last year to June 30 this year based on which severity levels were assigned as criteria. Security impacts are calculated on a scale of 1-20 and severity, 1-3.