Alice left the Wonderland
TLPBLACK Team"Alice left the Wonderland" were the last words on X by the talented and passionate cybersecurity researcher, a kind and wonderful human being, Mr Sergey "Alis" Mineev. And so he did, he finally left the Wonderland of Life.
When he was younger, Sergey was inspired by the Russian rock-rebellion group "АЛИСА" (ALICE), whose lyrics were full of philosophical poetry and religious symbolism:
Perhaps it’s only the madness in my head, Perhaps life isn’t as good as it seems. Perhaps I will never reach the light - Yet I soared when my soul would sing.
Knowing that the world was corrupted, he always looked for the truth, for inner purification, for freedom and fairness. His tool was his sharp mind and his obsessive persistence in work to defend, to protect those who were defenceless, to save people from harm.
Sergey was truly one of the most brilliant researchers in the field of computer security and especially APT hunting. His tools, ideas and pet projects reshaped our understanding of threat intelligence, anomaly discovery and attack detection.
Feared by APTs and loved by his friends, Sergey’s passing leaves a big empty hole in our hearts. There are so many epic stories in his career which shaped pretty much all the biggest discoveries reported since 2012.
One story goes as follows: one morning Sergey writes a message: "I think I found a new Turla version, can you please check?". Turns out it was not Turla, but something much bigger. "In this world everything is a play of shadows", he used to say.
For my generation keeps silent in the corners, My generation does not dare to sing. My generation feels the pain, Yet once again it places itself beneath the whip. My generation looks down, My generation is afraid of the day. My generation nurses the night, And in the morning it devours itself.
There are no rules
Sergey was a big fan of 1984 by George Orwell and did an entire presentation once about his work drawing parallels from the novel. Care to guess which APT was the Ministry of Truth?
His favorite movie was Fight Club. In his YARA training, he used the following line: “The first rule of the Yara fight club is: there are no rules”. He used this to emphasize there are infinite ways to detect malice and you should always strive for perfection, the rule that catches them all.
He always remembered our birthdays and sent us messages. Not only did he remember them, but sometimes he gave small but meaningful gifts to remind us of him until we met again. Little did we know that this Fight Club themed gift was going to be the last one. We are grateful for all the moments he was with us. It was an honor to have walked and worked beside him and we will cherish all these moments forever. Same as we will cherish his last gift to us: to remind us to be as good as possible, to shoot for the stars.
As Sergey flies into infinity, we pause for a moment to remember all his unmatched YARA rules, his amazing research projects, unsolved APTs he discovered, his humor, his smile and wit. In the words of his favorite rock band, “Alice”: “I am the experimenter”, “I fly above the earth where fear ends”.
Sergey was truly the ultimate experimenter and today he flies high above this earth. In mr Alis, cybersecurity lost a great defender.
Sergey Mineev
Fly safe, friend!
Costin, Dan, JAGS, Kurt, Marco, Ryan, Vitaly