Ross J. Anderson

Ross John Anderson (15 September 1956 – 28 March 2024) was a British researcher, author, and industry consultant in security engineering.<ref name="securityengineering">Template:Cite book</ref> He was Professor of Security Engineering at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge<ref>The Blue Book – "The Computer Laboratory: an Introduction", University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, August 2007 Template:Webarchive</ref> where he was part of the University's security group.<ref name="scopus">Template:Scopus</ref><ref name="acm">Template:ACM Portal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Education

Anderson was educated at the High School of Glasgow.<ref name="whoswho"/> After leaving school he attended Glasgow University and studied Natural Philosophy. He did not complete his studies there and moved to Cambridge. In 1978, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and natural science from the University of Cambridge where he was an undergraduate student of Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequently received a qualification in computer engineering. Anderson worked in the avionics and banking industry before moving back to the University of Cambridge in 1992, to work on his doctorate under the supervision of Roger Needham<ref name="needphd">Template:Cite thesis</ref> and start his career as an academic researcher.<ref name="cv">Curriculum Vitae – Ross Anderson, May 2007</ref> He received his PhD in 1995.<ref name="needphd"/>

Research and career

File:Ross Anderson on the history of Malware (2010).mp3

Anderson on Malware (2010)

Anderson was appointed a lecturer at Cambridge in 1995.<ref name="whoswho">Template:Who's Who</ref> In addition to teaching at the University of Cambridge, he also taught at the University of Edinburgh.<ref name=therecord/>

Anderson's research interests<ref name="googlescholar">Template:Google Scholar ID</ref><ref name="mathgene">Template:MathGenealogy</ref><ref name="scopus"/> were in security, cryptology, dependability and technology policy.<ref name="googlescholar"/> In cryptography, he designed with Eli Biham the BEAR, LION and Tiger cryptographic primitives,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and co-wrote with Biham and Lars Knudsen the block cipher Serpent, one of the finalists in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also discovered weaknesses in the FISH cipher and designed the stream cipher Pike.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Anderson always campaigned for computer security to be studied in a wider social context. Many of his writings emphasised the human, social, and political dimension of security. On online voting, for example, he wrote "When you move from voting in person to voting at home (whether by post, by phone or over the Internet) it vastly expands the scope for vote buying and coercion",<ref name="guardian-voting">Template:Cite news</ref> making the point that it's not just a question of whether the encryption can be cracked.

In 1998, Anderson founded the Foundation for Information Policy Research, a think tank and lobbying group on information-technology policy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Anderson was also a founder of the UK-Crypto mailing list and the economics of security research domain.<ref>Ross Anderson: Template:Usurped, ACSAC 2001.</ref>

Anderson was well known among Cambridge academics as an outspoken defender of academic freedoms, intellectual property and other matters of university politics. He was engaged in the "Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms"<ref>Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms</ref> and had been an elected member of Cambridge University Council since 2002.<ref>Election to the Council: Notices 2 December 2002 and 7 November 2006, Cambridge University Reporter</ref> In January 2004, the student newspaper Varsity declared Anderson to be Cambridge University's "most powerful person".<ref>Cambridge Power 100, Varsity, Issue 591, 16 January 2004</ref>

In 2002, he became an outspoken critic of trusted computing proposals, in particular Microsoft's Palladium operating system vision.<ref>Ross Anderson: 'Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions, August 2003</ref>

Anderson's TCPA FAQ has been characterised by IBM TC researcher David R. Safford as "full of technical errors" and of "presenting speculation as fact."<ref>http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/gsal.TCG.html/$FILE/tcpa_rebuttal.pdfTemplate:Dead link</ref>

For years Anderson argued that by their nature large databases will never be free of abuse by breaches of security. He said that if a large system is designed for ease of access it becomes insecure; if made watertight it becomes impossible to use. This is sometimes known as Anderson's Rule.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Anderson was the author of several editions of Security Engineering, which was initially published by Wiley in 2001.<ref name="securityengineering"/><ref name=therecord/> He was the founder and editor of Computer and Communications Security Reviews.<ref name="cv" />

After the vast global surveillance disclosures leaked by Edward Snowden beginning in June 2013, Anderson suggested one way to begin stamping out the British state's unaccountable involvement in this NSA spying scandal was to entirely end the domestic secret services. Anderson: "Were I a legislator, I would simply abolish MI5". Anderson noted the only way this kind of systemic data collection was made possible was through the business models of private industry. The value of information-driven Web companies such as Facebook and Google is built around their ability to gather vast tracts of data. It was something the intelligence agencies would have struggled with alone.<ref>Cambridge's Head of Cryptography: I Would Abolish MI5, Forbes, 3 January 2013</ref>

Anderson was a critic of smart meters, writing that there are various privacy and energy security concerns.<ref>The Foundation for Information Policy Research Consultation response on Smart Meters Template:Webarchive</ref>

Awards and honours

Anderson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2009. His nomination reads:

Anderson was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2009.<ref name="RAEngReport2010">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="List of Fellows">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="whoswho"/><ref name="cv"/> He was a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge<ref name="churchill">Template:Cite web</ref> and awarded the BCS Lovelace Medal in 2015.<ref name=therecord/> Anderson was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2023.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life and death

Anderson met his wife, Shireen, while he was working in Johannesburg and they were married in Cambridge in 1992. Shireen Anderson is the coordinator of the Christina Kelly Association, of Churchill College, Cambridge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They have one daughter, Bavani, and four grandchildren.

Anderson died unexpectedly at home with his family in Cambridge on 28 March 2024, at the age of 67.<ref name=cstl>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=therecord>Template:Cite news</ref>

Security Engineering

By agreement with the publisher [1], the third edition of Ross Anderson's book Security Engineering was made available for download at the Cambridge University archive in November 2024. [2]