Professor of Computer Sciences (1987)
B.A., mathematics and computer science, SUNY College at Brockport, 1979; M.S., information and computer science, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1981; Ph.D., information and computer science, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1986
Before coming to Purdue, Dr. Spafford was a research scientist with the Software Engineering Research Center at Georgia Institute of Technology. While there, he participated in research efforts in software testing, software engineering liability, and distributed computing (the Clouds project).
Dr. Spafford's current research interests are focused on issues of computer and network security, computer crime and ethics, and the social impact of computing. He is the founder and director of the COAST Project -- the world's largest academic research group dedicated to issues of practical information security. His other interests include software engineering, electronic message systems, and computer science education.
Among many professional activities, Dr. Spafford is a member of the ACM's U.S. Public Policy Committee and he is a member of the advisory board of the National Research Center on Computing and Society. In 1996, he was named a charter recipient of the Computer Society's Golden Core, for his past service to the Society. Dr. Spafford is on the editorial and advisory boards of the Virus Bulletin, the journal Computers & Security, Journal of Artificial Life, Network Security, and the Journal of Information Systems Security.
Dr. Spafford is coauthor of the recent award-winning book Practical Unix & Internet Security (with S. L. Garfinkel), published by O'Reilly and Associates (1991, 1996). He was a contributing editor and author on Computer Crime: A Crime-Fighters Handbook (1995), and Web Security and Commerce (1997), both published by O'Reilly.
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