Mark Eugene Russinovich (born December 22, 1966) is a Spanish-born American
software engineer
Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software applications. It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop ...
and author who serves as
CTO of
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, or just Azure ( /ˈæʒər, ˈeɪʒər/ ''AZH-ər, AY-zhər'', UK also /ˈæzjʊər, ˈeɪzjʊər/ ''AZ-ure, AY-zure''), is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of ...
. He was a cofounder of software producers
Winternals before Microsoft acquired it in 2006.
Early life and education
Russinovich was born in
Salamanca
Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and was raised in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...
, United States, until he was 15, when he moved with his family to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. His father was a
radiologist
Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...
and his mother was a
business administrator of his father's radiology practice in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. Russinovich is of
Croatian descent.
He was introduced to computers when his friend's father got an
Apple II
Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
in the 1970s. He reverse engineering#Software, reverse-engineered its read-only memory, ROM program and wrote programs for it. At age 15, he bought himself his first computer, a TI-99/4A. About six months later, his parents bought him an Apple II Plus, Apple II+ from his local high school when it upgraded the computer labs to
Apple IIe
The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Inc., Apple Computer. It was released in January 1983 as the successor to the Apple II Plus. The ''e'' in the name stands for ...
s. He also wrote magazine articles about Apple II.
In 1989, Russinovich earned his
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in
computer engineering
Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software.
It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science.
Computer engi ...
from
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
, where he was a member of the
Pi Kappa Alpha Beta Sigma chapter. The following year he received a
Master of Science
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...
degree in computer engineering from
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...
. He later returned to Carnegie Mellon, where he received a
Ph.D. in computer engineering in 1994 with the thesis ''Application-Transparent Fault Management'' under the supervision of Zary Segall.
Career
From September 1994 through February 1996, Russinovich was a research associate with the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
's computer science department. From February through September 1996 he was a developer with
NuMega Technologies, where he worked on performance-monitoring software for
Windows NT
Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
.
In 1996, he and
Bryce Cogswell cofounded
Winternals Software, where Russinovich served as Chief Software Architect, and the web site sysinternals.com, where Russinovich wrote and published dozens of popular Windows administration and diagnostic utilities including
Autoruns,
Filemon
Process Monitor is a tool from Windows Sysinternals, part of the Microsoft TechNet website. The tool monitors and displays in real-time all file system activity on a Microsoft Windows or Unix-like operating system. It combines two older tools, '' ...
,
Regmon,
Process Explorer, TCPView, and
RootkitRevealer.
From September 1996 through September 1997, he was a consulting associate at OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc., based in
Amherst, New Hampshire. From September 1997 through March 2000, he was a research staff member at
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
's
Thomas J. Watson Research Center, researching operating system support for
Web server acceleration and serving as an operating systems expert.
Russinovich joined Microsoft in 2006 when it acquired Winternals.
As an author, Russinovich is a regular contributor to ''
TechNet Magazine'' and ''Windows IT Pro'' magazine (previously ''Windows NT Magazine'') on the
Architecture of Windows 2000, and was co-author of ''Inside Windows 2000'' (Third Edition). He wrote many tools used by
Windows NT
Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
and
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...
kernel-mode programmers, and the
NTFS
NT File System (NTFS) (commonly called ''New Technology File System'') is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft in the 1990s.
It was developed to overcome scalability, security and other limitations with File Allocation Tabl ...
file system driver for
DOS.
Works
In 1996, Russinovich discovered that altering two values in the
Windows Registry
The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores low-level settings for the Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The kernel, device drivers, services, Security Accounts Manager, a ...
of the Workstation edition of
Windows NT 4.0 changed the installation so it was recognized as a
Windows NT Server and allowed the installation of
Microsoft BackOffice products which were licensed only for the Server edition.
The registry key values were guarded by a worker thread to detect tampering; later, a program called NT Tune was released to kill the monitor thread and change the values.
Russinovich wrote LiveKD, a utility included with the book ''Inside Windows 2000''. As of 2022, the utility is readily available to download.
In 2005, Russinovich discovered the
Sony rootkit in
Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
DRM products, whose function was to prevent users from copying their media.
In January 2006, Russinovich discovered a
rootkit in
Norton SystemWorks by
Symantec. Symantec immediately removed the rootkit. He also analyzed the
Windows Metafile vulnerability
The Windows Metafile vulnerability—also called the Metafile Image Code Execution and abbreviated MICE—is a security vulnerability in the way some versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system handled images in the Windows Metafile format ...
and concluded that it was not a deliberate
backdoor. This possibility had been raised—although tentatively—by
Steve Gibson after a cursory investigation of the nature of the exploit and its mechanism.
Russinovich's novels ''Zero Day'' (foreword by
Howard Schmidt)
and ''Trojan Horse'' (foreword by
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin David Mitnick (August 6, 1963 – July 16, 2023) was an American computer security consultant, author, and convicted hacker. In 1995, he was arrested for various computer and communications-related crimes, and spent five years in prison ...
) were published by
Thomas Dunne Books on March 15, 2011 and September 4, 2012, parts of a series of popular
techno-thrillers that have attracted praise from industry insiders such as
Mikko Hyppönen and
Daniel Suarez.
A short story, "Operation Desolation",
was published just before ''Trojan Horse'' and takes place one year after the events of ''Zero Day''. Book 3, ''Rogue Code: A Novel'' (Jeff Aiken Series, May 2014) deals with vulnerabilities of the
NYSE
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
. It has a foreword by
Haim Bodek, author of ''The Problem of HFT: Collected Writings on
High Frequency Trading & Stock Market Structure Reform''.
Computer books
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* Russinovich, Mark; Margosis, Aaron (October 17, 2016).
Troubleshooting with the Windows Sysinternals Tools'. Microsoft Press. ISBN 978-0-7356-8444-7.
Novels
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Articles
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Videos
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References
External links
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Video interview with Mark in his office at Microsoft on TechNet EdgeMark's public event/session videos on Microsoft IT's Showtime! by TechNetOriginal Article on Sony's rootkitInside the WMF backdoorWindows Sysinternals Tools written by Mark RussinovichInterview with Scott Hanselman about Zero Day and Trojan Horse, 26 July 2012Mark on Security Now, 19 Sep 2012Mark on Windows Weekly, 20 Sep 2012
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russinovich, Mark
American chief technology officers
American people of Croatian descent
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Living people
Microsoft employees
Microsoft technical fellows
Microsoft Windows people
People from Salamanca
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni
Spanish emigrants to the United States
Techno-thriller writers
Writers from Birmingham, Alabama
1966 births