Ross John Anderson, FRS, (born 1956) is a researcher, writer, and industry consultant in
security engineeringSecurity engineering is a specialized field of engineering that deals with the development of detailed engineering plans and designs for security features, controls and systems...
.
He is Professor in
Security EngineeringSecurity engineering is a specialized field of engineering that deals with the development of detailed engineering plans and designs for security features, controls and systems...
at the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
Computer LaboratoryThe Computer Laboratory is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2007, it employs 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 155 research students...
, where he is engaged in the
Security Group.
In 1978, Anderson graduated with a BA in
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and
natural scienceIn Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the universe, which is understood as obeying rules or laws of natural origin...
from
Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 160 Fellows ....
, and subsequently received a qualification in
computer engineeringComputer Engineering is a discipline that combines both Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering...
.
Ross John Anderson, FRS, (born 1956) is a researcher, writer, and industry consultant in
security engineeringSecurity engineering is a specialized field of engineering that deals with the development of detailed engineering plans and designs for security features, controls and systems...
.
He is Professor in
Security EngineeringSecurity engineering is a specialized field of engineering that deals with the development of detailed engineering plans and designs for security features, controls and systems...
at the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
Computer LaboratoryThe Computer Laboratory is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2007, it employs 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 155 research students...
, where he is engaged in the
Security Group.
In 1978, Anderson graduated with a BA in
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
and
natural scienceIn Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the universe, which is understood as obeying rules or laws of natural origin...
from
Trinity College, CambridgeTrinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 160 Fellows ....
, and subsequently received a qualification in
computer engineeringComputer Engineering is a discipline that combines both Electronic Engineering and Computer Science. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering...
. He worked in the
avionicsAvionics means "aviation electronics". It comprises electronic systems for use on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft, comprising communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems...
and banking industry before moving in 1992 back to the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
, to work on his doctorate under the supervision of
Roger NeedhamRoger Michael Needham, CBE, FRS, FREng was a British computer scientist.Needham began his undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge in 1953, graduating with a B.A. in 1956 in mathematics and philosophy. His Ph.D. thesis was on applications of digital computers to the automatic...
and start his career as an academic researcher.. He received his PhD in 1995, and became a lecturer in the same year. He lives near
Sandy, BedfordshireSandy is a small market town in Bedfordshire, England. It is between Cambridge and Bedford, and on the A1 road from London to Edinburgh. The area is dominated by a range of hills known as the Sand Hills. The River Ivel runs through Sandy. The dedication of the Anglican church is to St Swithun...
.
In
cryptographyCryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. Modern cryptography intersects the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, and engineering...
, he designed with
Eli BihamEli Biham is an Israeli cryptographer and cryptanalyst, currently a professor at the Technion Israeli Institute of Technology Computer Science department. Starting from October 2008, Biham is the dean of the Technion Computer Science department, after serving for two years as chief of CS graduate...
the BEAR, LION and
TigerIn cryptography, Tiger is a cryptographic hash function designed by Ross Anderson and Eli Biham in 1995 for efficiency on 64-bit platforms. The size of a Tiger hash value is 192 bits. Truncated versions can be used for compatibility with protocols assuming a particular hash size...
cryptographic primitives, and coauthored with Biham and
Lars KnudsenLars Ramkilde Knudsen is a Danish researcher in cryptography, particularly interested in the design and analysis of block ciphers, hash functions and message authentication codes .-Academic:...
the
block cipherIn cryptography, a block cipher is a symmetric key cipher operating on fixed-length groups of bits, termed blocks, with an unvarying transformation. A block cipher encryption algorithm might take a 128-bit block of plaintext as input, and output a corresponding 128-bit block of ciphertext...
SerpentSerpent is a symmetric key block cipher which was a finalist in the Advanced Encryption Standard contest, where it came second to Rijndael. Serpent was designed by Ross Anderson, Eli Biham, and Lars Knudsen....
, one of the finalists in the AES competition. He has also discovered weaknesses in the
FISHThe FISH stream cipher is a fast software based stream cipher using Lagged Fibonacci generators, plus a concept from the shrinking generator cipher. It was published by Siemens in 1993. FISH is quite fast in software and has a huge key length...
cipher and designed the stream cipher
PikeThe Pike stream cipher was invented by Ross Anderson to be a "leaner and meaner" version of FISH after he broke FISH in 1994; the name is a humorous allusion to the Pike fish. The cipher combines ideas from A5 with the Lagged Fibonacci generators used in FISH. It is about 10% faster than FISH, yet...
.
In 1998, Anderson founded the
Foundation for Information Policy ResearchThe Foundation for Information Policy Research is a UK-based think tank that studies the interaction between information technology and government, business and civil society....
, a
think tankA think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economy, science or technology issues, industrial or business policies, or military advice...
and
lobbyingLobbying is the practice of influencing decisions made by government . It includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents, or organized groups. A lobbyist is a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest or a...
group on information-technology policy.
Anderson is also a founder of the UK-Crypto mailing list and the
economics of securityThe economics of information security addresses the economic aspects of privacy and computer security. Economics of information security includes models of the strictly rational homo economicus as well as behavioral economics...
research domain.
He is well-known among Cambridge academics as an outspoken defender of academic freedoms,
intellectual propertyIntellectual property is a number of distinct types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law...
, and other matters of university politics. He is engaged in the
Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms and has been an elected member of Cambridge University Council since 2002. In January 2004, the student newspaper
VarsityVarsity is the older of Cambridge University's main student newspapers . It has been published continuously since 1947, and is one of only three fully independent student newspapers in the UK. It appears every Friday around Cambridge.- History:Varsity is one of Britain's oldest student newspapers...
declared Anderson to be Cambridge University’s “most powerful person”.
In 2002, he became an outspoken critic of
trusted computingTrusted Computing is a technology developed and promoted by the Trusted Computing Group. The term is taken from the field of trusted systems and has a specialized meaning. With Trusted Computing, the computer will consistently behave in expected ways, and those behaviors will be enforced by...
proposals, in particular
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
’s
PalladiumThe Next-Generation Secure Computing Base , formerly known as Palladium, is a software architecture designed by Microsoft which is expected to implement parts of the controversial "Trusted Computing" concept on future versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. NGSCB is part of...
operating system vision.
Anderson is the author of
Security Engineering, published by Wiley in 2001, ISBN 0-471-38922-6.
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html He was the founder and editor of
Computer and Communications Security Reviews.
External links