Distinguished Lecture: Thinking Outside the Box

Abstract

Over the last six decades, computing technology has undergone a series of revolutions that have changed the world. Computing touches everyone's life, yet few people stop to think about the incredible rate of change of the underlying technology. The WWW is only about 20 years old, and Internet commerce is younger than that. With the expansion of the reach of computing, networks, and all that we do with computers, we have also seen new threats emerge to security, privacy, and even (to some extent) our social interactions.

In this talk I will discuss some of the major changes we have seen in computing, and some of their implications for security and privacy. Moreover, I will discuss how some of our basic concepts in computing technology have failed to change along with the computing hardware, and how that ultimately shapes what we do (and do not do) in research to address urgent problems.

Bio: Eugene H. Spafford has been working in computing for three decades, the last 22 years at Purdue University. Best known for his work in information security, Professor Spafford has also worked on issues of software engineering, privacy, cybercrime, computing ethics, and education.

4:15p Reception following Lecture in Burden Lounge