Ross J. Anderson

Anderson was educated at the High School of Glasgow. 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{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Ross John|last=Anderson |title=Robust Computer Security |publisher=University of Cambridge |date=2014 |id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.338198}}|oclc=53659223|url=https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21432462990003606|website=cam.ac.uk}} and start his career as an academic researcher.[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/cv.pdf Curriculum Vitae – Ross Anderson], May 2007 He received his PhD in 1995.

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

Anderson was appointed a lecturer at Cambridge in 1995.{{Who's Who | author=Anon|title=Anderson, Prof. Ross John | id = U70837 | year = 2014|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U70837 | edition = online edition via Oxford University Press}} In addition to teaching at the University of Cambridge, he also taught at the University of Edinburgh.

Anderson's research interests{{Google Scholar ID }}{{MathGenealogy |id=137937 }} were in security, cryptology, dependability and technology policy. In cryptography, he designed with Eli Biham the BEAR, LION and Tiger cryptographic primitives,{{cite web |title=Two Practical and Provably Secure Block Ciphers: BEAR and LION |url=http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/bear-lion.pdf |author=Ross Anderson and Eli Biham}}{{cite book |chapter=Tiger: A Fast New Hash Function |doi=10.1007/3-540-60865-6_46 |pages=89–97 |chapter-url=https://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~biham/Reports/Tiger/tiger/tiger.html |first1=Ross |last1=Anderson |first2=Eli |last2=Biham |title=Fast Software Encryption |location=Cambridge |publisher=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg |date=1996 |editor-first1=Dieter |editor-last1=Gollmann |isbn=978-3-540-60865-3}} and co-wrote with Biham and Lars Knudsen the block cipher Serpent, one of the finalists in the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition.{{Cite web |title=Serpent: A Candidate Block Cipher for the Advanced Encryption Standard |url=https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/serpent.html}} He also discovered weaknesses in the FISH cipher and designed the stream cipher Pike.{{citation|first=Ross J.|last=Anderson|title=Fast Software Encryption |contribution=On Fibonacci keystream generators|year=1995|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|publisher=Springer-Verlag|volume=1008|pages=346–352|doi=10.1007/3-540-60590-8_26|isbn=978-3-540-60590-4|doi-access=free}}

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",{{cite news|title=Why electronic voting isn't secure – but may be safe enough|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/30/why-electronic-voting-is-not-secure|date=30 March 2015|author=Nicole Kobie}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Beresford |first=Alastair |date=3 April 2024 |title=Ross Anderson, 1956–2024 |url=https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/ross-anderson |department=Department of Computer Science and Technology|website=cam.ac.uk|publisher=University of Cambridge}}

Anderson was also a founder of the UK-Crypto mailing list and the economics of security research domain.Ross Anderson: {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20061011090154/http://www.acsa-admin.org/2001/papers/110.pdf Why information security is hard – an economic perspective]}}, ACSAC 2001.

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"[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/ccf.html Campaign for Cambridge Freedoms] and had been an elected member of Cambridge University Council since 2002.Election to the Council: Notices [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2002-03/weekly/5906/4.html 2 December 2002] and [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2006-07/weekly/6053/5.html 7 November 2006], [http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/ Cambridge University Reporter] In January 2004, the student newspaper Varsity declared Anderson to be Cambridge University's "most powerful person".Cambridge Power 100, Varsity, [http://www.varsity.co.uk/archive/591.pdf Issue 591], 16 January 2004

In 2002, he became an outspoken critic of trusted computing proposals, in particular Microsoft's Palladium operating system vision.Ross Anderson: [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/tcpa-faq.html 'Trusted Computing' Frequently Asked Questions], August 2003

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."http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/research_projects.nsf/pages/gsal.TCG.html/$FILE/tcpa_rebuttal.pdf{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/henryporter/2009/aug/10/id-card-database-breach|title= Nine sacked for breaching core ID card database|website=The Guardian|location=London|quote=Anderson's Rule means you cannot construct a database with scale, functionality and security because if you design a large system for ease of access it becomes insecure, while if you make it watertight it becomes impossible to use|first=Henry|last=Porter|year=2009}}

Anderson was the author of several editions of Security Engineering, which was initially published by Wiley in 2001. He was the founder and editor of Computer and Communications Security Reviews.

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.[https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamlinmagee/2014/01/03/cambridges-head-of-cryptography-i-would-abolish-mi5 Cambridge's Head of Cryptography: I Would Abolish MI5], Forbes, 3 January 2013

Anderson was a critic of smart meters, writing that there are various privacy and energy security concerns.[https://www.fipr.org/100110smartmeters.pdf The Foundation for Information Policy Research Consultation response on Smart Meters] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313055246/http://www.fipr.org/100110smartmeters.pdf |date=13 March 2016}}

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

{{Cquote|Professor Ross Anderson, Personal Chair in Security Engineering, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

Ross Anderson was a pioneer and world leader in security engineering, and is distinguished for starting a number of new areas of research in hardware, software and systems.

File:Ross Anderson 15 June 2018 IMG 4317.jpg

His early work on how systems fail established a base of empirical evidence for building threat models for a wide range of applications from banking to healthcare.

Anderson made trailblazing contributions that helped establish a number of new research topics, including security usability, hardware tamper-resistance, information hiding, and the analysis of application programming interfaces.

Anderson was also one of the founders of the study of information security economics, which not only illuminates where the most effective attacks and defences may be found, but is also of fundamental importance to making policy for the information society.{{cite web |url=https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo==%27EC/2009/02%27) |title=EC/2009/02: Anderson, Ross |publisher=The Royal Society |archive-date=7 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190707222104/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqSearch=%28RefNo%3D%3D%27EC%2F2009%2F02%27%29 |location=London |url-status=dead}}}}

Anderson was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) in 2009.{{cite web|title=The Royal Academy of Engineering Annual Report 2009/2010|url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/25650027/annual-report-967kb-royal-academy-of-engineering}}{{cite web|title=List of Fellows|url=https://raeng.org.uk/fellows-directory}} He was a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge{{cite web |url=https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/people/view/ross-anderson |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016171138/https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/people/view/ross-anderson/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 October 2015 |title=Professor Ross Anderson FRS, FREng |publisher=Churchill College, Cambridge |access-date=14 May 2021 }} and awarded the BCS Lovelace Medal in 2015. Anderson was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2023.{{cite web | url=https://rse.org.uk/fellowship/professor-ross-anderson/ | title=Professor Ross Anderson }}

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.{{Cite web |title=Professor Ross Anderson |url=https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/news-and-events/professor-ross-anderson-1956-2024/ |access-date=16 April 2024 |website=Churchill College, Cambridge |archive-date=8 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240508213850/https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/news-and-events/professor-ross-anderson-1956-2024/ |url-status=dead }} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/news/ross-anderson|title=Ross Anderson, 1956 - 2024|first=Alastair|last= Beresford|year=2024}}{{cite news |title=Ross Anderson, professor and famed author of 'Security Engineering,' passes away |url=https://therecord.media/ross-anderson-cambridge-professor-passes-away |access-date=29 March 2024 |publisher=The Record |date=29 March 2024}}

By agreement with the publisher [https://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2024/11/12/sev3-download/], the third edition of Ross Anderson's book Security Engineering was made available for download at the Cambridge University archive in November 2024. [https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/rja14/book.html]

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Category:1956 births

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Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge

Category:British technology writers

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Category:Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge

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Category:Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Members of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory

Category:Modern cryptographers

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