COMPUTER AND INTERNET SECURITY: I THINK WE CAN WIN!

Keynote Speaker: Bill Cheswick

Abstract

After half a century of work on computer security and software, things just seem to be getting worse. Credit card numbers and passwords are stolen by the tens of millions, and all the old mistakes and errors persist.

Writing safe software for practical applications seems to be impossible. But engineering has always been about making something reliable out of unreliable parts.

I think we can win. It is our hardware, our software, and our network. We ought to be able to control all of this, and exclude most of the threats we face today. We can at least force the Bad Guys to be present to win. It's not going to happen soon, but I do think it will happen, and I will suggest various approaches, technologies, and players who might be part of the solution.

Biography

Bill Cheswick is known for his early work in Internet security, including firewalls, proxies, and as co-author on the first full book on firewalls ('Firewalls and Internet Security', celebrating its 20th birthday this year). He is also noted for his work in visualizations, especially Internet maps, which have appeared widely. Ches has worked at Bell Labs and AT&T Shannon Lab, and was a cofounder of Lumeta Corp.

He continues to invent, collaborate, write apps, consult, and give talks worldwide. He is a visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania.