Ian Goldberg Explained

Ian Avrum Goldberg
Birth Date:31 March 1973
Doctoral Advisor:Eric Brewer
Known For:Off-the-Record Messaging
Field:Computer Science
Work Institution:University of Waterloo
Thesis Title:"A Pseudonymous Communications Infrastructure for the Internet"
Thesis Url:http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/~iang/thesis-final.pdf
Thesis Year:2000

Ian Avrum Goldberg (born March 31, 1973) is a cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is best known for breaking Netscape's implementation of SSL (with David Wagner),[1] and for his role as chief scientist of Radialpoint (formerly Zero Knowledge Systems), a Canadian software company. Goldberg is currently a professor at the Faculty of Mathematics of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science within the University of Waterloo, and the Canada Research Chair in Privacy Enhancing Technologies.[2] He was formerly Tor Project board of directors chairman,[3] and is one of the designers of off the record messaging.[4]

Education

Goldberg attended high school at the University of Toronto Schools, graduating in 1991. In 1995, he received a B.Math from the University of Waterloo in pure mathematics and computer science. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2000. His thesis was entitled A Pseudonymous Communications Infrastructure for the Internet.[5] His advisor was Eric Brewer.

Accomplishments

As a high school student, Goldberg was a member of Canada's team to the International Math Olympiad from 1989 to 1991, where he received a bronze, silver, and gold medal respectively.[6] He was also a member of University of Waterloo team that won the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in 1994.[7] In 1998, Wired Magazine chose him as a member of the "Wired 25".[8] In 2011 he won the EFF Pioneer Award.[9] In 2019, he won the USENIX Security Test of Time Award along with his colleagues David Wagner and Randi Thomas and former PhD supervisor Eric Brewer.[10] In 2023, he was named an ACM Fellow.[11]

Work in cryptography

In 1995, Goldberg with David Wagner discovered a flaw in the random number generator used for temporary key generation in the SSL implementation of Netscape Navigator.[1] [12]

One of the first cryptanalyses on the WEP wireless encryption protocol was conducted by Goldberg with Nikita Borisov and David Wagner, revealing serious flaws in its design.[13] [14]

Goldberg was a co-author of the Off-the-Record instant messaging encryption protocol. He is also the author of the Perl script included in the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson.[15]

In 2009 Goldberg was co-author of the Sphinx Mix Format,[16] which is nowadays implemented with the extension of a per-hop payload to increase the privacy of both payer and payee while routing Bitcoin payments through the Lightning Network.[17]

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, was a research assistant of Goldberg while a student at the University of Waterloo.[18] [19]

Goldberg is a member of the Cryptography, Security and Privacy group as well as the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute (CPI). He has been collaborating with the CPI works on the development of a new interdisciplinary research and education program.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Ian Goldberg. 1995-09-18. Netscape SSL implementation cracked!. hks.lists.cypherpunks. 2006-09-12.
  2. Web site: 2022-01-10 . Privacy and cybersecurity can foster 21st Century democracy . 2022-04-19 . Waterloo News . en.
  3. News: Tor Project, a Digital Privacy Group, Reboots With New Board . The New York Times . 13 July 2016 . 2016-07-13. Perlroth . Nicole .
  4. Web site: Tor Project Board of Directors . Tor Project . January 26, 2015.
  5. Web site: A Pseudonymous Communications Infrastructure for the Internet. https://web.archive.org/web/20011030065633/http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/~iang/thesis-final.pdf. dead. 30 October 2001. 30 October 2001. 5 February 2019.
  6. Web site: International Mathematical Olympiad: Hall of fame.
  7. Web site: 1993-94 18th Annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest Final Report. 2002-04-01. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110102183152/http://icpc.baylor.edu/past/icpc94/Report.html. 2011-01-02.
  8. The Wired 25. Wired. 6 . 11. November 1998. 2006-10-30.
  9. Web site: EFF Celebrates the 2011 Pioneer Award Winners . 18 November 2011 . 10 December 2011.
  10. Web site: Ian Goldberg Colleagues Honoured Security Research Test of Time. 14 August 2019. 2021-02-02.
  11. Web site: Ian Goldberg . 2024-01-26 . awards.acm.org . en.
  12. Web site: The Cypherpunks Who Cracked Netscape. people.eecs.berkeley.edu.
  13. Web site: Nikita Borisov . Ian Goldberg . David Wagner . Intercepting Mobile Communications: The Insecurity of 802.11. 2001. 2006-09-12.
  14. Web site: (In)Security of the WEP algorithm. www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu.
  15. Book: Neal Stephenson. Cryptonomicon. 1999. Avon Books. New York. Acknowledgements. 978-0-380-97346-0. registration.
  16. Web site: Sphinx: A Compact and Provably Secure Mix Format. cypherpunks.ca/~iang/.
  17. Web site: Basics Of Lightning Technology #4: Onion Routing Protocol. www.github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc. 21 July 2022 .
  18. 13 July 2017 . The Uncanny Mind That Built Ethereum . Wired . https://web.archive.org/web/20170713184159/https://www.wired.com/2016/06/the-uncanny-mind-that-built-ethereum/ . 2017-07-13.
  19. News: Hitt . Tarpley . 2021-05-05 . Meet the World's Youngest Crypto Billionaire . en . The Daily Beast . 2022-04-19.