Susan Landau
Susan Landau | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1954 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Princeton University, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Occupation(s) | Mathematician, engineer, cybersecurity policy expert |
| Employer(s) | Tufts University (Bridge Professor in Cybersecurity and Policy), Google (Senior Staff Privacy Analyst), Sun Microsystems |
| Known for | Landau's algorithm, FBI–Apple encryption dispute expert testimony |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship, Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award (2008), Surveillance Studies Network Book Prize (2012), J. D. Falk Award (2015), National Cyber Security Hall of Fame (2015) |
Susan Landau (born 1954) is a distinguished American mathematician, engineer, and expert in cybersecurity policy, currently holding the position of Bridge Professor in Cybersecurity and Policy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She has previously worked as a Senior Staff Privacy Analyst at Google. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Landau was also a visiting scholar in the Computer Science Department at Harvard University during 2012.
Career
Landau earned her A.B. degree in mathematics from Princeton University in 1976, where she completed a senior thesis titled "Simple algebras" under the mentorship of John Coleman Moore. She subsequently obtained a master's degree from Cornell University in 1979 and completed her Ph.D. in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983, focusing her dissertation on algorithms for computing Galois groups under the supervision of Gary L. Miller.
Between 1999 and 2010, Landau concentrated on internet security while working at Sun Microsystems. In the academic year 2010–2011, she held a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where her research emphasized security within government systems and privacy policy issues.
Landau is credited with developing the inaugural algorithm that determines which nested radical expressions can be simplified, now referred to as Landau's algorithm. Early in her career, she was recognized as a finalist in the 1972 Westinghouse Science Talent Search for her project on odd perfect numbers.
She is an advocate for women’s participation in science, supporting initiatives such as the ResearcHers Email list, and maintains an online bibliography cataloging publications by women in computer science. In recognition of her contributions to social impact, Landau received the 2008 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision Award.
Since 1999, she has been a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2011 she was honored as a Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery. Her book Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies (MIT Press) earned the Surveillance Studies Network Book Prize in 2012. In October 2015, Landau was inducted into the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame.
Involvement with FBI v. Apple case
During the FBI–Apple encryption dispute (2015–2016), Landau provided expert testimony and co-authored the influential report Keys Under Doormats: Mandating Insecurity by Requiring Government Access to All Data and Communications, which received the 2015 J. D. Falk Award from the Messaging Malware Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group. The Obama administration cited this analysis when deciding against implementing exceptional access to smartphone data.
Landau contended that compromising iPhone security would drive malicious actors toward methods beyond control, asserting that forcing Apple to diminish software protections would "weaken us, but not impact the bad guys."