Rubin, Aviel 1967-

PERSONAL:

Born November 8, 1967, in Manhattan, KS. Education: University of Michigan, B.S., 1989, M.S.E., 1991, Ph.D., 1994. Hobbies and other interests: Pool, golf, tennis, soccer, photography, piano, playing with his kids.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Owing Mills, MD. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, teaching assistant, 1988-93; IBM, Poughkeepsie, NY, programmer, 1989; Great Lakes Software Co., Howell, MI, programmer, 1990; cryptology and network security research for Bellcore (now Telcordia), 1994-96; New York University, New York, NY, adjunct professor, 1995-99; secure systems researcher for AT&T Labs, 1997-2002; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, associate professor, 2003-04, professor of computer science, 2004—, technical director of Information Security Institute, 2003—. Cofounder, Independent Security Evaluators (computer security consulting firm). Visiting professor, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, 1999. Director, USENIX Organization, 2000-04.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Branstom Prize, University of Michigan, 1986; National Science Foundation fellowship, 1992; Baltimorean of the Year, Baltimore, 2003; Pioneer Award, Electronic Frontiers Foundation, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(With Daniel Greer and Marcus J. Ranum) Web Security Sourcebook, Wiley Computer (New York, NY), 1997.

White-Hat Security Arsenal: Tackling the Threats, foreword by William R. Cheswick, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 2001.

(With William R. Cheswick and Stephen M. Bellovin) Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, 2nd edition, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 2003.

Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, Morgan Road Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including, with Marc Waldman and Lorrie Faith Cranor, Peer to Peer, O'Reilly & Associates, 2001; and Communications Policy and Information Technology: Promises, Problems, Prospects, edited by Lorrie Faith Cranor and Shane Mitchell Greenstein, MIT Press, 2002. Contributor to journals, including Electronic Commerce Research Journal, Communications of the ACM, Computer Networks, IEEE Internet Computing, Journal of Computer Systems, and Computer Communications. Associate editor, Electronic Commerce Research Journal, 1999-2002, ACM Transactions on Internet Tech-nology, 2002-05, IEEE Securtiy & Privacy Magazine, 2003—, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2005-06. Coeditor, Electronic Newsletter of the IEEE Technical Committee on Security & Privacy, 1998. Member of editorial board, Journal of Privacy Technology, 2004-06; member of editorial and advisory board, International Journal of Information and Computer Security, 2004-06.

SIDELIGHTS:

Aviel Rubin is a computer science professor and computer network security specialist. He is well known and highly regarded in the field of computer security, particularly with regard to his work to secure the national elections system and to ensure the validity of the voting process. Following the drawn-out U.S. presidential elections of 2000, along with its hanging chad issues, many states attempted to implement a new electronic voting system—the Diebold electronic voting technology. The new process proved to be insecure, however, and Rubin made national news with his investigation into the issue. In his book Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, Rubin explains how he and two graduate students revealed the safety issues, and the political upheaval that followed as various government officials refused to accept his evidence, claiming he was attempting to undermine the electoral process. The issue was further complicated by Rubin's own ties to a company that produced voting software. In a review for the Washington Monthly, Phil Keisling felt that "Rubin has written an engaging memoir of his three years in the vortex of electronic voting controversy." Vanessa Bush, writing in Booklist, called Rubin's effort "an absorbing account of how his involvement in the e-voting controversy affected his life and career."

Rubin has also written several other books on computer network and Internet security, including an update of Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, which he wrote with William R. Cheswick and Stephen M. Bellovin, the authors of the original edition. The book takes the approach to security that, rather than providing your network with an impenetrable firewall, it is preferable to build a filter or gate-keeping system that allows only certain information through, dependent on the wishes of the network owner. Patrick Mueller remarked in Information Security Online: "Despite a few hiccups, Firewalls and Internet Security will rightly join its predecessor as an instant security classic."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Rubin, Aviel, Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age of Electronic Voting, Morgan Road Books (New York, NY), 2006.

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2006, Vanessa Bush, review of Brave New Ballot, p. 29.

Campaigns & Elections, October-November, 2006, review of Brave New Ballot, p. 62.

IEEE Micro, September-October, 2003, Richard Mateosian, review of Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, p. 6.

Publishers Weekly, July 31, 2006, review of Brave New Ballot, p. 71.

Washington Monthly, December 1, 2006, Phil Keisling, "Election Fraud, American Style: The Most Effective Voter Suppression Tool Is the Polling Booth Itself," review of Brave New Ballot, p. 46.

ONLINE

Aviel Rubin Blog,http://avi-rubin.blogspot.com (May 7, 2007).

Aviel Rubin Home Page,http://avirubin.com (May 1, 2007).

Brave New Ballot Web site,http://www.bravenewballot.com (May 1, 2007).

Help Net Security Web site,http://www.net-security.org/ (February 26, 2003), Mirko Zorz, interview with Aviel Rubin.

Information Security Online,http://infosecuritymag.techtarget.com/ (May 1, 2007), Patrick Mueller, "Secure Reads," review of Firewalls and Internet Security.