Ian Goldberg

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Ian Avrum Goldberg (born March 31, 1973) is a Jewish-Canadian cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is best known for breaking Netscape's implementation of SSL (with David Wagner),^[1] and for his role as Chief Scientist of Radialpoint (formerly Zero-Knowledge Systems), a Canadian software company. Beginning with the fall 2006 academic term, Goldberg is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo.

Contents 1 Education 2 Accomplishments 3 Work in cryptography 4 Trivia 5 External links 6 Notes and references

[edit] Education

He attended high school at the University of Toronto Schools, graduating in 1991. In 1995, he received a B.Math from the University of Waterloo in Pure Mathematics and Computer Science. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in December 2000. His thesis was entitled A Pseudonymous Communications Infrastructure for the Internet. His advisor was Eric Brewer.

[edit] Accomplishments

As a high school student, Goldberg was a member of Canada's team to the International Math Olympiad from 1989 to 1991, where he received a bronze, silver, and gold medal respectively. In 1998, Wired Magazine chose him as a member of the "Wired 25"^[2].

[edit] Work in cryptography

In 1995, Ian Goldberg with David Wagner discovered a flaw in the random number generator used for temporary key generation in the SSL implementation of Netscape Navigator.^[1]

One of the first cryptanalyses on the WEP wireless encryption protocol was conducted by Goldberg with Nikita Borisov and David Wagner, revealing serious flaws in its design.^[3]

Goldberg was a co-author of the Off-the-Record instant messaging encryption protocol.

[edit] Trivia

• Goldberg was the author of the perl script given in Cryptonomicon, a novel by Neal Stephenson.

[edit] External links

• Ian Goldberg's homepage

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Ian Goldberg (1995-09-18). "Netscape SSL implementation cracked!". hks.lists.cypherpunks. (Google Groups). Retrieved on 2006-09-12.
2. ^ (1998-11) "The Wired 25". Wired 6 (11). Retrieved on 2006-10-30. 
3. ^ Nikita Borisov, Ian Goldberg, David Wagner (2001). "Intercepting Mobile Communications: The Insecurity of 802.11" (PDF). Retrieved on 2006-09-12.