Alec Muffett
Alec Muffett | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 22, 1968 |
| Occupation(s) | Internet security specialist, software engineer |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Known for | Crack password cracker, CrackLib library, factorization of RSA-155, development of .onion sites for major news and social media outlets |
Alec David Edward Muffett (born 22 April 1968) is a dual British-American specialist in internet security and a software engineer.
Career
Beginning his tenure at Sun Microsystems in 1992 as a systems administrator, Muffett progressed to the role of principal security engineer until his position was eliminated in 2009, shortly before Oracle's acquisition of Sun. During his time at Sun, he contributed to the successful factorization of the 512-bit number known as RSA-155 in 1999. He is also credited with creating Crack, the first password cracker designed for Unix, along with the CrackLib library for validating password strength.
In 2015, SC Magazine honored Muffett as one of the six most influential figures in security thought leadership.
Muffett was instrumental in the development of .onion sites for prominent entities such as The New York Times, Wikipedia, BBC News, Brave, Twitter, The Guardian, and Reddit, facilitating enhanced secure and anonymous user access to these services.