Ross Anderson – Schneier on Safety – Cyber Tech

Ross Anderson

Ross Anderson unexpectedly handed away Thursday evening in, I consider, his residence in Cambridge.

I can’t keep in mind once I first met Ross. After all it was earlier than 2008, after we created the Safety and Human Habits workshop. It was effectively earlier than 2001, after we created the Workshop on Economics and Data Safety. (Okay, he created each—I helped.) It was earlier than 1998, after we wrote concerning the issues with key escrow programs. I used to be one of many individuals he delivered to the Newton Institute, at Cambridge College, for the six-month cryptography residency program he ran (I mistakenly didn’t keep the entire time)—that was in 1996.

I do know I used to be on the first Quick Software program Encryption workshop in December 1993, one other convention he created. There I offered the Blowfish encryption algorithm. Pulling an previous first-edition of Utilized Cryptography (the one with the blue cowl) down from the shelf, I see his title within the acknowledgments. Which signifies that someday in early 1993—most likely at Eurocrypt in Lofthus, Norway—I, as an unpublished e-book writer who had solely written a few crypto articles for Dr. Dobb’s Journal, requested him to learn and touch upon my e-book manuscript. And he mentioned sure. Which suggests I mailed him a paper copy. And he learn it. And mailed his handwritten feedback again to me. In an envelope with stamps. As a result of that’s how we did it again then.

I’ve identified Ross for over thirty years, as each a colleague and a good friend. He was enthusiastic, good, opinionated, articulate, curmudgeonly, and sort. Choose up any of his educational papers—there are various—and odds are that you will see that a least one sudden perception. He was a cryptographer and safety engineer, but in addition very a lot a generalist. He revealed on block cipher cryptanalysis within the Nineties, and the safety of large-language fashions final yr. He began conferences like no person’s enterprise. His masterwork e-book, Safety Engineering—now in its third version—is as complete a tome on cybersecurity and associated subjects as you might think about. (Additionally be aware his fifteen-lecture video sequence on that very same web page. In case you have by no means heard Ross lecture, you’re in for a deal with.) He was the primary individual to know that safety issues are sometimes truly financial issues. He was the primary individual to make a number of these kinds of connections. He fought in opposition to surveillance and backdoors, and for educational freedom. He didn’t endure fools in both authorities or the company world.

He’s listed within the acknowledgments as a reader of each certainly one of my books from Past Worry on. Not too long ago, we’d see one another a few instances a yr: at this or that workshop or occasion. The final time I noticed him was final June, at SHB 2023, in Pittsburgh. We have been having dinner on Alessandro Acquisti‘s rooftop patio, celebrating one other profitable workshop. He was going to attend my Workshop on Reimagining Democracy in December, however he needed to cancel on the final minute. (He despatched me the speak he was going to provide. I’ll see about posting it.) The day earlier than he died, we have been discussing the best way to accommodate everybody who registered for this yr’s SHB workshop. I realized one thing from him each single time we talked. And I’m not the one one.

My coronary heart goes out to his spouse Shireen and his household. We misplaced him a lot too quickly.

Tags: cryptanalysis, cryptography, cybersecurity, economics of safety, safety conferences, safety engineering

Posted on March 31, 2024 at 8:21 PM •
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