Tom Cross (born 1976), also known as Decius, is an American

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

expert and

hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

Early life

Cross was born in 1976 in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

, and grew up in

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

. His father worked in

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

policy and his mother was a Registered Nurse's Assistant. He attended Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee, before attending

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part o ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

, receiving a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

computer engineering Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer enginee ...

Security work

He co-founded the EFGA (Electronic Frontiers Georgia) in 1995. In 1996, he co-founded Computer Sentry Software, known for their award-winning "CyberAngel" software, a laptop anti-theft program. From 1999 to 2000, he was Chief Engineer at Dataway, a computer security firm in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. From 2000 to 2001 he worked at

iAsiaWorks iAsiaWorks was an ISP and Internet data center (IDC) from 2000–2001 during the final days of the dot-com era, which built state-of-the-art data centers in Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and other cities. Its IPO on the NASDAQ was IAWK on Aug 19th ...

, as the Director of Global Security Engineering. In 2001, he founded

Industrial Memetics Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominat ...

, which developed the popular collaborative blogging community

MemeStreams MemeStreams is an early social networking website, online community, and blog host that was established in 2001 by Industrial Memetics. Created by Tom Cross and Nick Levay, the site is particularly popular among computer security professionals ...

. Cross has been a speaker at several technology conferences, including

PhreakNIC PhreakNIC is an annual hacker and technology convention held in Nashville, Tennessee. It is organized by the Nashville 2600 Organization and draws upon resources from SouthEastern 2600 (se2600). The Nashville Linux User Group was closely tied ...

; Summercon; "The First International Hackers' Conference in Seoul Korea" (IS2K); "InternetWorld" in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

; and

APRICOT An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus '' Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are al ...

, the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies. He was also among the attendees at the first ever

Def Con DEF CON (also written as DEFCON, Defcon or DC) is a hacker convention held annually in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first DEF CON took place in June 1993 and today many attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyer ...

. He is known for extensive "rant" essays and speeches on technology and policy. He has also been a co-host on episodes of "

Binary Revolution David Blake (born 1971), also known as StankDawg, is the founder of the hacking group Digital DawgPound (DDP) and a long-time member of the hacking community. He is known for being a regular presenter at multiple hacking conferences, but is best ...

", as a

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adve ...

expert.

Writing

"An open letter to PFIR on "Whois" privacy"
''Politech'' listserv, June 24, 2004
"DNS WHOIS: Barking up the wrong tree"
CircleID, June 28, 2004
"The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains"
Vint Cerf answers three of Tom's questions in an interview, CircleID, March 13, 2006
"Academic freedom and the hacker ethic"
Communications of the ACM, June 2006.
"Puppy smoothies: Improving the reliability of open, collaborative wikis"
First Monday, September 2006.

References

External links

Decius's page at MemeStreams

Binary Revolution

Industrial Memetics Institute

PhreakNIC
technology conference
MemeStreams
Weblog Community {{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Tom 1976 births Living people American technology writers Canadian expatriates in the United States Scientists from Toronto Writers from Toronto Georgia Tech alumni Computer security specialists American computer scientists People from Brentwood, Tennessee