Oral history interview with Lance Hoffman by Rebecca Slayton

Abstract

This interview with security pioneer Lance Hoffman discusses his entrance into the field of computer security and privacy—including earning a B.S. in math at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, interning at SDC, and earning a PhD at Stanford University—before turning to his research on computer security risk management at as a Professor at the University of California–Berkeley and George Washington University. He also discusses the relationship between his PhD research on access control models and the political climate of the late 1960s, and entrepreneurial activities ranging from the creation of a computerized dating service to the starting of a company based upon the development of a decision support tool, RiskCalc. Hoffman also discusses his work with the Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE Computer Society, including his role in helping to institutionalize the ACM Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy. The interview concludes with some reflections on the current state of the field of cybersecurity and the work of his graduate students.

This interview is part of a project conducted by Rebecca Slayton and funded by an ACM History Committee fellowship on “Measuring Security: ACM and the History of Computer Security Metrics.”