How a Spanish virus brought Google to Málaga

After 33 years, Bernardo Quintero decided it was time to find the person who changed his life – the anonymous programmer who created a computer virus that had infected his university decades earlier.

The virus, called Virus Málaga, was mostly harmless. But the challenge of defeating it fueled Quintero’s passion for cybersecurity, which ultimately led him to found VirusTotal, a startup that Google bought in 2012. That acquisition brought Google’s European flagship cybersecurity center to Málaga, transforming the Spanish city into a tech hub.

All because of a small malware program created by someone whose identity Quintero had never known. Moved by nostalgia and gratitude, Quintero launched a search earlier this year. He asked Spanish media to step up his search for tips. He delved back into the virus’s code, looking for clues his 18-year-old self might have missed. And finally, he solved the mystery by sharing the bittersweet decision in a LinkedIn post that went viral.

The story begins in 1992, when a young Quintero was asked by a teacher to create an antivirus program for the 2610 byte program that had spread across the computers at Málaga’s Polytechnic School. “That challenge in my first year of university sparked a deep interest in computer viruses and security, and without it my path could have been very different,” Quintero told TechCrunch.

Quintero’s search was aided by his programmer instincts. Earlier this year, he stepped down from his team leadership role to “go back to the cave, to Google’s basement.” He didn’t leave the company; instead, he went back to tinkering and experimenting without managerial duties.

This manipulative mindset also made him rethink Virus Málaga and look for details he had missed years earlier. At first he found fragments of a signature, but thanks to another security expert, he discovered a later variant of the virus with a much clearer signal: “KIKESOYYO.” “Kike soy yo” would translate to “I’m Kike,” a common nickname for “Enrique.”

Around the same time, Quintero received a direct message from a man who is now the general digital transformation coordinator for the Spanish city of Cordoba, who claimed that he saw one of his classmates from the polytechnic school create the virus. Many details added up, but one in particular stood out: The man knew that the virus’ hidden message — called a payload in cybersecurity terms — was a statement condemning the Basque terrorist group ETA, a fact that Quintero had never revealed.

The tipster then gave Quintero a name – Antonio Astorga – but also shared the news that he had passed away.

This hit Quintero like a ton of bricks; now he would never be able to ask Antonio about “Kike”. But he kept following the thread, and the plot twist came from Antonio’s sister, who revealed that his first name was actually Antonio Enrique. To his family he was Kike.

Cancer took Antonio Enrique Astorga away before Quintero could thank him in person, but the story doesn’t stop there. Quintero’s LinkedIn post sheds new light on the legacy of “a brilliant colleague who deserves to be recognized as a pioneer in cyber security in Málaga” – and not just for helping Quintero discover his calling.

According to his friend, Astorga’s virus had no other goal than to spread his anti-terrorist message and prove himself as a programmer. Reflecting Quintero’s path, Astorga’s interest in IT persisted and he became a computer teacher at a secondary school that named the IT classroom after him in his memory.

Astorga’s legacy lives on beyond these walls as well, and not just through his students. One of his sons, Sergio, is a graduate software engineer with an interest in cybersecurity and quantum computing—a meaningful connection for Quintero. “To be able to close that circle now and see new generations build on it is deeply meaningful to me,” Quintero said.

For Quintero, who suspects their paths will cross again, Sergio is “very representative of the talent being formed in Málaga today.” This, in turn, is a result of VirusTotal forming the root of what eventually became the Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) and spearheading collaborations with the University of Málaga that turned the city into a true cybersecurity talent center.