Oral history interview with Karl Levitt

Abstract

Computer security pioneer discusses his educational background and early career, with the bulk of the interview on his approximately four decades plus focus on computer security research. He discusses his work with fault-tolerant systems, the institutional setting and his research and management roles at SRI (including PSOS, IDES/NIDES, etc.). He also discusses joining the faculty at UC-Davis in Computer Science and launching its Computer Security Laboratory, which has been influential in educating and placing computer security specialists in academe, government, and industry. Also discussed is his post-IDES/NIDES work on intrusion detection, voting systems and security, federal funding for computer security, his program manager role for Trustworthy Computing at NSF, 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.”