Marcus J. Ranum Explained

Marcus J. Ranum
Birth Date:5 November 1962
Birth Place:New York City, New York, United States
Nationality:American
Known For:Computer and Network Security Innovator
Alma Mater:Johns Hopkins University
Employer:Tenable, Inc.
Website:www.ranum.com

Marcus J. Ranum (born November 5, 1962, in New York City, New York, United States) is a computer and network security researcher. He is credited with a number of innovations in firewalls, including building the first Internet email server for the whitehouse.gov domain,[1] and intrusion detection systems. He has held technical and leadership positions with a number of computer security companies, and is a faculty member of the Institute for Applied Network Security.

Education

Marcus Ranum was born in New York City, and graduated from Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland before attending Johns Hopkins University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1985.[2]

Career

Ranum helped design and implement Digital Equipment Corporation's Secure External Access Link (SEAL) (later AltaVista firewall),[3] regarded as the first commercial bastion host firewall,[4] in 1990. He left DEC to work for Trusted Information Systems (TIS) as chief scientist and development manager for Internet security products. It was at TIS that Ranum became responsible for the whitehouse.gov Internet email site. Once charged with that responsibility, Ranum advocated that the whitehouse.com domain be registered as well.[5] Despite his advice, it was not registered by the government, but was later registered for an adult entertainment provider.[6] At TIS, he developed the TIS Internet Firewall Toolkit (fwtk) under a grant from DARPA. After TIS, he worked for V-One as chief scientist, and was extensively involved in that company's IPO. Three months after that IPO, Ranum formed his own company, Network Flight Recorder (NFR), and served as CEO for three years before stepping into a CTO role.[7] Ranum later left NFR to consult for TruSecure.[8] In 2004, he became the chief security officer of Tenable, Inc.[9]

In addition to his various full-time positions, Ranum has also held board or advisory positions at NFR Security,[10] Protego Networks,[11] and Fortify Software.[12]

Public presentations

Ranum has spoken to USENIX audiences at LISA 1997,[13] 1999 (tutorial)[14] LISA 2000 (keynote),[15] 2002,[16] and 2003 (tutorial).[17] He spoke out against full disclosure at the Black Hat Security Briefings in 2000.[18] More recently, Ranum has spoken at Interop in 2005[19] and 2007,[20] CanSecWest in 2010, and Secure360 in 2011.[21]

He previously taught courses for the SANS Institute.[22]

Influence

Ranum's work has been cited in at least 15 published U.S. patents,[23] as well as numerous other computer and network security articles and books.

"Ranum's Law"

Ranum is cited[24] [25] [26] as the author[27] of an eponymous law, "You can't solve social problems with software."

Awards

Publications

Articles

Marcus has co-authored a series of "Face Off" articles with Bruce Schneier, which have appeared approximately bi-monthly in Information Security Magazine since July, 2006.[32]

Ranum is one of a number of editors of the SANS Newsbites semiweekly email newsletter.[33]

Books

Personal life

Currently, Ranum lives in Morrisdale, Pennsylvania. His hobbies include photography and firearms. He maintains an active stock photography account on DeviantArt, and he wrote an essay for Oleg Volk's pro-firearms site. www.a-human-right.com.[34] Marcus Ranum was also interviewed by digital artist Brandon Pence for the NWFLAA which can be read in 2 parts: Part 1 and Part 2. He is an atheist,[35] maintaining a blog on the Freethought Blogs network.[36]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Who's Who in Infosec: Marcus Ranum. 2003-06-17. Information Security Magazine. 2008-06-07. 2010-08-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20100820185618/http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid14_gci906598,00.html. dead.
  2. https://www.zdnet.com/article/security-q-a-the-father-of-firewall/ ZDNet - Security Q&A: the father of firewall
  3. Web site: Comments: Interview with Marcus Ranum. https://archive.today/20131130164942/http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/334/32089/threaded. dead. 2013-11-30. 2005-06-28. 2008-06-07.
  4. Web site: Avolio. Frederic. Firewalls and Internet Security, the Second Hundred (Internet) Years. 1999-06-01. 2008-06-07. The Internet Protocol Journal. Cisco Systems.
  5. Web site: Miller. Sandra Kay. A Contrarian's Viewpoint. 2006-12-01. 2008-06-11.
  6. Web site: December letter from a White House counsel to the operator of the "whitehouse.com" adult site . CNet. 1997-12-08. 2008-06-11.
  7. Web site: NFR Intrusion Detection Appliance Version 4.0 Released. 1999-10-14. Business Wire. 2008-06-08.
  8. Web site: Cisco and Sourcefire Achieve Enterprise-Level NIDS Certification from ICSA Labs. 2003-04-21. Business Wire. 2008-06-08.
  9. News: Comment: Taking the Ethical High Road . InfoSecurity . April 19, 2012.
  10. Web site: NFR Security Adds Leading Security Industry Experts to Technology Advisory Board. 2004-02-02. Business Wire. 2008-06-08.
  11. Web site: Protego Networks 2.5; Industry Icon Marcus Ranum Joins Protego Networks' Advisory Board. Business Wire. 2004-06-01. 2008-06-08.
  12. Web site: Technical Advisory Board. Fortify. 2008-06-08.
  13. Web site: USENIX Summaries: Eleventh Systems Administration Conference (LISA '97). USENIX. 2008-06-07.
  14. Web site: Tutorial Instructors. USENIX. 2008-06-07.
  15. Web site: USENIX LISA-NT 2000. USENIX. 2008-06-07.
  16. Web site: 2002 USENIX Technical Conference. USENIX. 2008-06-07.
  17. Web site: USENIX — Security '03 Tutorials. USENIX. 2008-06-07.
  18. News: CERT to disclose software flaws. Lemos. Robert. ZDNet.co.uk. 2000-10-09. 2008-06-07.
  19. Web site: Avolio. Fred. The Same Old Drum Beat. 2005-05-23. 2008-06-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20081120124818/http://www.avolio.com/weblog/security/SameOldDrumbeat.html. 2008-11-20. dead.
  20. Web site: Tenable CISO Workshops during Interop 2007 New York Now Open for Registration . 2008-06-08 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080626073931/http://www.nessus.org/news/data/pr83.pdf . 2008-06-26 .
  21. Web site: Falling on the sword of 'Need to Publish'. Secure360. 2011-05-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20110826233034/http://secure360.org/sessions/falling-sword-need-publish. 2011-08-26. dead.
  22. Web site: SANS Institute — Certified Instructors. 2008-06-07.
  23. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5606668.html 5,606,668
  24. Book: William R. Cheswick. Steven M. Bellovin. Aviel D. Rubin. Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker. registration. 2003. Addison-Wesley Professional. 978-0-201-63466-2. 202–.
  25. Web site: Ranum's Law. Kian-Meng. Ang. 28 February 2014. www.kianmeng.org. 26 April 2023. It was always a people problem rather than a technical issue or as Marcus Ranum put it, "You can’t solve social problems with software". .
  26. Web site: Digital Economy Bill Written Evidence Submitted by Alec Muffett (DEB 39). Muffett. Alec. UK Parliament. October 2016. www.parliament.uk. March 12, 2018.
  27. Web site: Firewall Wizards mailing list archives. Ranum. Marcus. 16 June 1999. seclists.org. 26 April 2023. "You can't solve social problems with software." .
  28. Web site: TISC to honor Marcus Ranum, Internet security pioneer. Business Wire. 2000-04-17. 2008-06-07.
  29. Web site: Award Honorees. ISSA. 2008-06-07.
  30. Web site: NFR Security Founder Selected for International Security Association Hall of Fame. 2006-06-12. Business Wire. 2008-06-08.
  31. Web site: Tenable Network Security Executive Named 2005 Techno-Security Professional of the Year. 2005-06-07. 2008-06-07. Business Wire.
  32. Web site: Articles by Author: Bruce Schneier and Marcus Ranum. Information Security Magazine. 2008-06-07.
  33. Web site: SANS NewsBites. 2008-06-07.
  34. Web site: Ranum. Marcus. The Aesthetics of the Gun Debate. 2008-06-07.
  35. Ranum, Marcus. "Ranum's supports Dawkins's "out campaign" for atheists.". Retrieved 12 April 2012. Generally, I do not get a lot of satisfaction out of being identified with causes or logos. But - a couple of years ago, when Richard Dawkins started his "out campaign" for atheists, I thought that showing my support was not a bad idea.
  36. Web site: Stderr. 23 January 2024 .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Marcus J. Ranum".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.