Peter Gutmann

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This article is about the computer scientist. For the writer, see Peter Gutmann (journalist).

Peter Gutmann is a computer scientist based in Auckland, New Zealand; he received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Auckland. Interested in computer security issues, including security architecture, security usability (or more precisely the lack thereof), and hardware security, he has discovered assorted flaws in publicly released cryptosystems and protocols. He is the developer of the cryptlib open source software security library and contributed to PGP version 2. He is also known for his analysis of data deletion on electronic memory media, magnetic and otherwise, and devised the Gutmann method for erasing data from a hard drive more or less securely.

Having lived in New Zealand (NZ) for some time, he has written on such subjects as wetas, which are peculiar to NZ, and the great blackout of 1998 in Auckland, during which electrical power failed for some months in the city. See, for instance, Auckland: Your Y2K beta test site on Gutmann's Homepage. He has also written on his career as an "arms courier" for New Zealand, detailing the difficulty faced in complying with customs control regulations with respect to cryptographic products (once classed as "munitions").

His white paper Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection, where he described the content protection specification as "the longest suicide note in history", generated public interest since it was first posted in 2006. He discussed this with Steve Gibson in episode #74 of Security Now in a podcast broadcast on 2007-01-11 (transcription).

[edit] Other Peter Gutmanns

The Peter Gutmann (journalist) who writes extensively on classical music issues (see especially his articles on Toscanini and Furtwangler) is a journalist and attorney. A different Peter Gutmann helped demonstrate in March 2007 that the United Airlines booking system runs into difficulties when two people with the same name try and board the same flight.