Ahto Buldas

Buldas was born in Tallinn. After graduating from high school, he was conscripted in to the Soviet Army where he spent 2 years as an artillery officer in Siberia. After being discharged, he started studies in Tallinn University of Technology, where he defended his MSc degree in 1993 and his PhD in 1999. He currently lives in Tallinn with his wife and four children.{{cite web|url=http://home.cyber.ee/ahtbu/cv_ahto_buldas.pdf|title=Ahto Buldas' personal website}}

Buldas was a leading contributor to the Estonian Digital Signature Act and ID-card from 1996 to 2002, currently the only national-level public-key infrastructure (PKI) which has achieved widespread adoption by a country's population for legally binding digital signatures.{{cite web|url=https://www.etis.ee/portaal/isikuCV.aspx?PersonVID=37625&lang=et|title=Estonian Science Information System: Ahto Buldas}} He published his first timestamping related research in 1998 and has published over 30 academic papers on the subject. His experience of implementing a national level PKI led him to invent Keyless Signature Infrastructure,{{cite web|url=http://www.ttu.ee/infotehnoloogia-teaduskond/informaatikainstituut-3/oppetoolid-4/infoturbe-oppetool/research-topics/|title=Research Center on Keyless Signature Infrastructure}} a digital signature/timestamping system for electronic data that uses only hash-function based cryptography. By using hash-functions as the only cryptographic primitive the complexities of key management are eliminated and the system remains secure from quantum cryptographic attacks. His invention led to the founding of keyless signature technology company Guardtime in 2006.

He is the Chair of Information Security at Tallinn University of Technology. Buldas has been a supervisor for 15 MSc dissertations and 4 PhD theses.

• 2002: Young Scientist Award by the Cultural Foundation of the President of Estonia.{{cite web|url=http://www.president.ee/en/president/institutions/146-cultural-foundation-of-the-president-of-the-republ/5067-young-scientist-award-/layout-institution.html|title=The President of the Republic of Estonia: Young Scientist Award}}
• 2015: Order of the White Star, IV class.{{cite web |title=Teenetemärkide kavalerid: Ahto Buldas |url=https://www.president.ee/et/vabariik/teenetemargid/kavaler/19220/ahto-buldas |website=www.president.ee |access-date=29 March 2021}}

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• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-642-34266-0_6}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-642-14081-5_20}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-642-04642-1_19}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-642-02620-1_19}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-540-88733-1_18}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-540-75670-5_9}}
• {{doi|10.1007/978-3-540-71677-8_11}}

• [http://home.cyber.ee/ahtbu/ Ahto Buldas' personal website ]
• [http://www.guardtime.com/educational-series-on-hashes/ Ahto Buldas' series of mini-lectures about cryptographic hash functions] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121206020054/http://www.guardtime.com/educational-series-on-hashes/ |date=2012-12-06 }}
• [http://echo360.e-uni.ee/ess/echo/presentation/97a237f0-b3b7-4dfd-947f-8e9fc6f6080f/ Ahto Buldas' TTU lecture on keyless signatures]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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Category:1967 births

Category:Living people

Category:Modern cryptographers

Category:Estonian inventors

Category:Estonian computer scientists

Category:Estonian mathematicians

Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 4th Class

Category:Scientists from Tallinn

Category:Tallinn University of Technology alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of Tartu

Category:Academic staff of the Tallinn University of Technology

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