Oral history interview with Rebecca G. Bace

Abstract

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.”