Computer and Network Security in the 21st Century

When: 
Thursday, November 16, 2006 - 7:00pm
Room: 
34-101
Lecturer(s): 
Jeffrey I. Schiller, MIT

Computer and Network Security is a tricky business. Just when you believe you have an understanding of how to solve the problem, the problem itself changes! First we have how to secure different processes on a timesharing system, and the personal computer shows up. Then we worry about network eavesdropping, and we get buffer over-run attacks. We worry about intruders, and we get automated self propagating worms! Yet when you talk about security solutions, you hear the same old thing, firewalls, password change intervals, anti-virus etc. This talk will cover what is happening "out there", what we need to be worrying about now, and perhaps soon! We'll discuss what we can (and perhaps cannot do) to help mitigate the myriad of problems that we face.

Lecturer Biography: 

JEFFREY I. SCHILLER received his S.B. in Electrical Engineering (1979) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As MIT Network Manager he has managed the MIT Campus Computer Network since its inception in 1984. Prior to his work in the Network Group he maintained MIT's Multics timesharing system during the time-frame of the ArpaNet TCP/IP conversion. He is an author of MIT's Kerberos Authentication system. From 1994 through 2003 Mr. Schiller was the Internet Engineering Steering Group's (IESG) Area Director for Security, responsible for overseeing security related Working Groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). He was responsible for releasing a U.S. legal freeware version of the popular PGP encryption program. Mr. Schiller is also responsible for the development and deployment of an X.509 based Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) at MIT. He serves as a consultant to other higher educational institution in the usage and deployment of PKI and related security technologies. Mr. Schiller is also a founding member of the Steering Group of the New England Academic and Research Network (NEARnet). NEARnet, now part of Level3, is a major nationwide Internet Service Provider.