Peter G. Neumann
Until recently, security was a backwater in the world of computing.
Many people cite Albert Einstein’s aphorism “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Only a handful, however, have had the opportunity to discuss the concept with the physicist over breakfast.
One of those is Peter G. Neumann, now an 80-year-old computer scientist at SRI International, a pioneering engineering research laboratory here.
As an applied-mathematics student at Harvard, Dr. Neumann had a two-hour breakfast with Einstein on Nov. 8, 1952. What the young math student took away was a deeply held philosophy of design that has remained with him for six decades and has been his governing principle of computing and computer security.
For many of those years, Dr. Neumann (pronounced NOY-man) has remained a voice in the wilderness, tirelessly pointing out that the computer industry has a penchant for repeating the mistakes of the past. He has long been one of the nation’s leading specialists in computer security, and early on he predicted that the security flaws that have accompanied the pell-mell explosion of the computer and Internet industries would have disastrous consequences.
“His biggest contribution is to stress the ‘systems’ nature of the security and reliability problems,” said Steven M. Bellovin, chief technology officer of the Federal Trade Commission. “That is, trouble occurs not because of one failure, but because of the way many different pieces interact.”
Dr. Bellovin said that it was Dr. Neumann who originally gave him the insight that “complex systems break in complex ways” — that the increasing complexity of modern hardware and software has made it virtually impossible to identify the flaws and vulnerabilities in computer systems and ensure that they are secure and trustworthy.
The consequence has come to pass in the form of an epidemic of computer malware and rising concerns about cyberwarfare as a threat to global security, voiced alarmingly this month by the defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, who warned of a possible “cyber-Pearl Harbor” attack on the United States.
It is remarkable, then, that years after most of his contemporaries have retired, Dr. Neumann is still at it and has seized the opportunity to start over and redesign computers and software from a “clean slate.”
He is leading a team of researchers in an effort to completely rethink how to make computers and networks secure, in a five-year project financed by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, with Robert N. Watson, a computer security researcher at Cambridge University’s Computer Laboratory.
“I’ve been tilting at the same windmills for basically 40 years,” said Dr. Neumann recently during a lunchtime interview at a Chinese restaurant near his art-filled home in Palo Alto, Calif. “And I get the impression that most of the folks who are responsible don’t want to hear about complexity. They are interested in quick and dirty solutions.”
This might be of interest also: Cyberwarfare statistics: A decade of geopolitical attacks
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Computer security
- Smashing Security podcast #280: Hot tub hijinx, and a sentient AI
Internet-connected jacuzzis find themselves in hot water, and a Google engineer claims that their AI has developed feelings. All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the ...
- Ex-Amazon employee convicted of hacking Capital One and stealing data of over 100 million people, including social security numbers and banking info
"Far from being an ethical hacker trying to help companies with their computer security, she exploited mistakes to steal valuable data and sought to enrich herself," said U.S Attorney Nick Brown.
- Slovenia Hosts Cyber Security Exercise to Test Nuclear Security Capabilities
Unusual and suspicious behaviour of a disgruntled employee captured in a 10 second surveillance video of a hypothetical nuclear facility opened a large-scale cybersecurity exercise in Slovenia.
- Computer Security for Consumer Market Size: Expected to Grow at a CAGR of 9.8% with Top Companies, Share Analysis, Future Growth, and Forecast to 2028
The global Computer Security for Consumer market size is estimated to be worth USD 26550 million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 46530 million by 2028 with a CAGR of 9.8% ...
- Search Computer Security and Networks Courses
In Aruba Networking Basics, you will learn what a basic computer network is ... You'll also learn about cloud security with a review of AWS' shared responsibility model and an introduction ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Computer security
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Cybersecurity
- Biden Signs Two Cybersecurity Bills Into Law
Two bipartisan cybersecurity bills were signed into law on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, by US President Joe Biden: the Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program Act of 2021, and the State and Local ...
- PH biggest target of phishing in Southeast Asia—cybersecurity report
From February to April this year, nearly seven out of 10—or 68.95 percent—phishing attacks recorded in the Philippines targeted finance-related transactions, according to ...
- CISA Cybersecurity Advisory Committee Meets to Discuss Subcommittee Recommendations
Easterly asked the Committee to assess the feasibility and key characteristics of a national alert system for cyber risk.
- 2022 Trends in Wealth Management Cybersecurity
The rush to use cloud services has the potential to create these security risks and challenges for wealth management firms in particular. As a result, a good cybersecurity system is more important ...
- Cybersecurity Incident and Breach Reporting Requirements
A Visual Representation of Federal Policy, Rulemakings and Guidance Over the past several years—and the last 365 days in particular [1]—a flurry of new cybersecurity incident and breach reporting ...
