Oral history interview with Eugene H. Spafford

Abstract

This interview with computer security pioneer Eugene Spafford spans from his early education to the near present (2013). He discusses how he came to focus on computer security as a research field and his long and ongoing career as a faculty member, editor-in-chief (Computers & Security), center director, and educator. A substantial portion of the interview addresses his work in founding and leading a premier center for computer security research—COAST Lab (Computer Operations, Audit, and Security Technology), which evolved to become CERIAS (Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security). CERIAS is the largest academic research center on information assurance and computer security and has had tremendous influence on the field from its pioneer research and education to its highly regarded symposiums and outreach. Among other topics Spafford discusses are intrusion detection research and development, Unix security, Tripwire, the Association for Computing Machinery, service to the federal government, and the importance of a sense of humor.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”