Marcus J. Ranum

Marcus J. Ranum
Marcus J. Ranum
Born	November 5, 1962 (age 64); New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Computer and network security researcher
Years active	1990s–present
Known for	Pioneering contributions to firewalls; creating first Internet email server for whitehouse.gov; advancing intrusion detection technologies

Marcus J. Ranum (born November 5, 1962, in New York City, New York, U.S.) is a prominent researcher in the fields of computer and network security, recognized for pioneering contributions to firewalls. Among his achievements are creating the inaugural Internet email server for the whitehouse.gov domain and advancing intrusion detection technologies. He has held various technical and executive positions across several security firms and currently serves as faculty at the Institute for Applied Network Security.

Education

Originally from New York City, Ranum completed his secondary education at Gilman School in Baltimore. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University in 1985.

Career

Ranum played a significant role in designing Digital Equipment Corporation’s Secure External Access Link (SEAL) firewall, which later became known as the AltaVista firewall. This product is acknowledged as the first commercially available bastion host firewall, introduced in 1990. Following this, he joined Trusted Information Systems (TIS) as chief scientist and development manager for Internet security solutions. At TIS, he oversaw operations of the whitehouse.gov email server and led the development of the TIS Internet Firewall Toolkit (fwtk) funded by a DARPA grant.

After his tenure at TIS, Ranum took on the role of chief scientist at V-One, where he contributed to the company’s initial public offering. He subsequently founded Network Flight Recorder (NFR), serving as CEO for three years before moving into the CTO position. Later, he provided consultancy services to TruSecure and was appointed chief security officer at Tenable, Inc. in 2004.

Additionally, Ranum has held advisory or board positions at NFR Security, Protego Networks, and Fortify Software.

Public presentations

Ranum has delivered talks at multiple USENIX LISA conferences, including sessions in 1997, tutorials in 1999 and 2003, a keynote address in 2000, and presentations in 2002. He expressed opposition to full disclosure during the Black Hat Security Briefings in 2000. More recently, he has presented at Interop events in 2005 and 2007, CanSecWest in 2010, and Secure360 in 2011.

He has also provided instruction through courses offered by the SANS Institute.

Influence

His work is referenced in over fifteen U.S. patents as well as numerous publications within the computer and network security domain.

Ranum's law

Ranum is attributed with formulating "Ranum's law," which states: "You can't solve social problems with software." This principle highlights that many cybersecurity issues stem from human behavior rather than purely technical flaws.

Awards

Recipient of the TISC "clue" award in 2000
Inducted into the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) Hall of Fame around 2000 or 2001
Honored as Techno-Security Professional of the Year in 2005

Articles

Since July 2006, Marcus Ranum has co-written a series titled "Face Off" alongside Bruce Schneier, featured bimonthly in Information Security Magazine.

He also serves as an editor for the SANS Institute’s semiweekly newsletter Newsbites.

Notable articles include:

Selling Security: Fear Leads to... the Dark Side, published in Login (1999)
Various editions of The Network Police Blotter, appearing in Login (2000)

Books

The Myth of Homeland Security
Host Intrusion Monitoring Using Osiris and Samhain, co-authored with Brian Wotring and Bruce Potter
Web Security Sourcebook, written with Aviel D. Rubin and Dan Geer

Personal life

Marcus Ranum lives in Morrisdale, Pennsylvania. His hobbies encompass photography and firearms, and he actively manages a stock photography collection on DeviantArt. He authored an essay featured on Oleg Volk's pro-gun website, www.a-human-right.com. Additionally, digital artist Brandon Pence conducted a two-part interview with Ranum for the NWFLAA. Ranum identifies as an atheist and maintains a blog within the Freethought Blogs network.

External links