Browsing by Subject "National Security Agency (NSA)"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Oral history interview with Daniel J. Edwards
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2013-07-02) Edwards, Daniel J.
    In this oral history, computer security pioneer Daniel Edwards discusses his long-term career as a computer security researcher at the National Security Agency (NSA). He discusses Trojan Horse attacks, a term he introduced in the computer security field to describe a particular type of computer security vulnerability of hidden malicious code within a seemingly harmless program. He provides perspective on the evolving relationship of communications security (COMSEC) and computer security (COMPUSEC) at the NSA. Edwards became part of the NSA’s National Computer Security Center and was principally involved with the development of the NCSC’s/DOD’s Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) and elaborates on the processes and considerations in developing and refining this influential set of computer security standards. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with David Elliott Bell
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2012-09-24) Bell, David Elliott
    David Elliott Bell is a mathematician and computer security pioneer who co-developed the highly influential Bell-LaPadula security model. This interview discusses the context of his pivotal computer security work at MITRE Corporation, and his later contributions at the National Security Agency and Trusted Information Systems (including his leadership on TIS’s Trusted Xenix B2-rated system). This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with Marvin Schaefer
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2013-11-20) Schaefer, Marvin
    This interview with computer security pioneer Marvin Schaefer discusses his roles and perspectives on computer security work at the System Development Corporation over many years (an organization he began working at in the summer of 1965), as well as his work at the National Computer Security Center in helping to create the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC). With the latter he relates the challenges to writing the criteria, the debates over the structure and levels, and the involvement of criteria lawyers. He also summarizes his work at the company Trusted Information Systems. In addition to detailing his pivotal work in computer security, he offers insightful commentary on issues in the field such as the Bell-LaPadula Model, John McLean’s System Z, and other topics. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with Rebecca G. Bace
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2012-07-31) Bace, Rebecca G.
    Rebecca Bace, who has a Master of Engineering Science degree from Loyola College, is a leading figure in the computer security field of intrusion detection. She is the author the influential textbook on this topic, Intrusion Detection, and was leader of the pioneering Computer Misuse and Anomaly Detection (CMAD) Research Program at the National Security Agency from 1989 to 1995. In this capacity, she sponsored much of the first wave of path breaking academic research on intrusion detection. This interview briefly addresses Ms. Bace’s education and early professional life before focusing on her dozen years at the NSA, and specifically her leadership of CMAD. In detailing the portfolio of early CMAD sponsored projects that Bace supported, it provides an important lens into the early evolution of intrusion detection as a research field and area of practice, and identifies many of this field’s pioneering contributors. The interview also briefly touches on Bace’s work after leaving the NSA, including at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as President of the consulting firm Infidel, Inc. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with Roger R. Schell
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2012-05-01) Schell, Roger R.
    Dr. Roger R. Schell, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and current president of Æsec Corporation, is one of the foremost contributors to and authorities on "high assurance" computer security. In this oral history he discusses his formulation of the secure kernel and reference monitor concepts (in the early 1970s), his work that led to security enhancements to Honeywell-Multics (mid-1970s), his role as deputy director of the National Computer Security Center (including leadership on TCSEC or “The Orange Book” in the early to mid-1980s), and commercial (high assurance) computer security enterprises he’s led since retiring from the Air Force. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with Seymour E. Goodman
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2013-08-06) Goodman, Seymour E.
    In this oral history, Seymour Goodman describes his career in computing, beginning with his education including undergraduate work at Columbia University and earning a Ph.D. in mathematical physics at California Institute of Technology. Facing the downturn in physics employment around 1970, he took a position at the University of Virginia and transformed himself into a computer scientist specializing in algorithms. While on a sabbatical leave at Princeton University, he became interested in the social and political analysis of computers, especially in the Soviet Union and other East Bloc states. While at Princeton he began what developed into the MOSAIC project (unrelated to the web browser of that name) which flourished with his move to the University of Arizona. MOSAIC staff collected available information on Soviet computing and conducted numerous study tours to investigate the state of Soviet Bloc computing. (Reports from many of these study tours are available at CBI.) This work supported U.S. government efforts in export control policy and implementation. After the 1989-91 political transitions, Goodman’s group began another series of international visitations and field research on the global diffusion of the internet. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”
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    Oral history interview with Sheila Brand by Rebecca Slayton
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2016-09-29) Brand, Sheila
    This interview with security pioneer Sheila Brand discusses her early training and career in mathematics and engineering before turning to her work in both private sector and government computer security. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Brand helped to develop and secure time-shared databases at Commercial Credit Corporation, shortly after Commercial Credit merged with Control Data Corporation (CDC). In the 1970s Brand worked on computer security in the Social Security Administration and the Inspector General’s office of the Department of Health and Human Services before going to the National Security Agency’s new Computer Security Center in 1982. There she authored the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC), or “Orange Book,” which influenced computer security standards around the world. In her later career at the National Security Agency she worked in intelligence as well as continued standards development, for example leading the task force that developed the Unified INFOSEC Criteria. Brand also discusses the processes whereby she overcame multiple obstacles to women pursuing careers in science and engineering, and the process of becoming a manager as well as a problem-solver. 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.”
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    Oral history interview with Stephen Walker
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2012-11-08) Walker, Stephen
    Steve Walker, a computer security pioneer and entrepreneur, began his career at the National Security Agency, before becoming a manager at ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques office in the first half the 1970s. He later served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as an expert on computer security and organized key early meetings of some of the nation’s foremost computer security experts that were held at the National Bureau of Standards. In the early 1980s Walker’s career took an entrepreneurial turn as he founded Trusted Information Systems. This company became one of the earliest and most important computer security services and software products firms – producing Trusted Xenix and pioneering the firewall area of the computer security software industry. After TIS was sold, Walker worked for a number of years as an IT venture capitalist. Walker discusses his days at NSA, ARPA's IPTO, OSD, and his leadership of Trusted Information Systems in this interview. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1116862, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History.”