Dr. Gene Spafford
(Eugene H. Spafford)



Associate Professor
Department of Computer Sciences
Director of the COAST Laboratory
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-1398
e-mail: spaf@cs.purdue.edu



The Internet: Threat or Menace? The Growing Problem of Computer Crime





Biography:

Gene Spafford received his PhD from Georgia Tech in 1986, and joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue University in 1987, where he is an associate professor. He has been an active researcher with the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC) there. Currently, he is the director of the COAST (Computer Operations, Audit and Security Technology) laboratory at Purdue.

Spaf does research on issues relating to increasing the reliability of computer systems, and the consequences of computer failures. This has included work with software debugging and testing, and reliable distributed computing systems. His current work is focused on computer security and on issues liability and professional ethics. His work in security has resulted in many oft-cited papers and several books, as well as several widely-used security tools.

Gene on the editorial boards of many journals, include "Computers & Security," "Journal of Information Systems Security," "Artificial Life," the "Virus Bulletin," and "Networks Security." Professor Spafford is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is a member of the IEEE Computer Society. He is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is chair of the ACM Self-Assessment Committee, chair of the ISEF Awards Committee, and a member of the SIG Technical Standards Committee. He is chair of IFIP WG 11.4 on Network Security. He is a member of the advisory board of the National Research Center on Computers and Society, and is a member of the Usenix Association. He is also a member of the steering committee for the international Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.

In his spare time, Spaf wonders why he has no spare time.

The Internet: Threat or Menace? The Growing Problem of Computer Crime


The growth of Internet services and connectivty is astonishing. Some extrapolations of current growth predict that everyone in the world may have Internet access by the year 2004. Meanwhile, banks, financial service firms, government agencies, and myriad commercial entities are seeking ways to perform their business transactions with the public using an Internet link.

Meanwhile, there is a dark side to all of this. Hackers, viruses, software pirates, and even electronic "hit men" are also prowling the Internet. As more commerce and information comes on-line, we may be creating more of a threat to ourselves than we are creating a benefit.

This presentation will give an overview of some of the computer crime-related problems being created by the growth of the Internet. We will discuss some of the defenses, and some of the limitations and obstacles, facing our future use of networked services.

Technical Talk: New Directions in Misuse and Anomaly Detection

Computer systems sometimes suffer mechanical failures, software faults, and operator failures. Often, they are misconfigured and operated under internally inconsistent policies. The result is that security mechanisms may not be reliable or sufficient to protect vital resouces. Thus, detection of misuse, including intrusions, becomes an important second line of defense.

This presentation will outline two new approaches to intrusion detection being conducted in the COAST Laboratory. One is based on a new classification of misuse activity, and the other is based on a multiple-agent approach. The benefits, drawbacks, and application of each method are discussed.