Peter Gabriel Neumann (born 1932) is a computer science researcher who worked on the Multics operating system in the 1960s. He edits the RISKS Digest columns for ACM '' Software Engineering Notes'' and ''

Communications of the ACM ''Communications of the ACM'' (''CACM'') is the monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). History It was established in 1958, with Saul Rosen as its first managing editor. It is sent to all ACM members. Articles are i ...

''. He founded ACM SIGSOFT and is a Fellow of the ACM,

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

, and AAAS.

Early life and education

Neumann holds three degrees from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

: an A.B. (1954) in Mathematics, and an S.M. (1955) and Ph.D. (1961) in Applied Mathematics and Science. He held a

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

from 1958–1960. While a student at Harvard, he had a two-hour breakfast with

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

, on 8 November 1952, discussing simplicity in design.

Career

Neumann worked at

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

from 1960 to 1970. He has worked at

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ( ) is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, California, Eas ...

since 1971. Before the RISKS mailing list, Neumann was known for the Provably Secure Operating System (PSOS). Neumann worked with Dorothy E. Denning in the 1980s to develop a computer

intrusion detection An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a device or software application that monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations. Any intrusion activity or violation is typically either reported to an administrator or collec ...

system known as IDES that was a model for later computer security software.

Memberships and awards

Neumann has long served as moderator of RISKS Digest and is a member of the

ACCURATE Accuracy and precision are two measures of ''observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements (observations or readings) are to their ''true value''. ''Precision'' is how close the measurements are to each other. The ...

project. Neumann is the founding editor of ACM Software Engineering Notes (SEN), and is a Fellow of the ACM. In 2018, Neumann received the EPIC Lifetime Achievement Award from

Electronic Privacy Information Center The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center established in 1994 to protect privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic values in the information age. Based in Washington, D.C., their mission i ...

Selected publications

* Neumann, Peter G., ''Computer-Related Risks'',

Addison-Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...

/ ACM Press, , 1995.

References

External links

Home page

Short biography

RISKS Forum archive

Peter G. Neumann oral history

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, University of Minnesota * 1932 births Living people Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni American computer scientists 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Multics people Computer security specialists Scientists at Bell Labs SRI International people Computer science writers {{US-compu-bio-stub