Security computing expert to speak Thursday, May 2

An internationally renowned expert on computer security will discuss the interaction between economics and the theory of system dependability in a free public lecture Thursday, May 2, at UW–Madison.

Ross Anderson, a computer scientist from Cambridge University, will speak from 4-5 p.m., AB20 Weeks Hall, 1215 Dayton St. He will give the annual J. Barkley Rosser Memorial Lecture, which is sponsored by the Computer Sciences Department and made possible through a generous gift by Annetta Rosser.

Anderson leads the security group at the Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University, where he is reader in security engineering. He is the author of the definitive book “Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems.”

One of his more influential papers is “The Eternity Service,” which described a filestore distributed over the whole Internet so as to make it highly resistant to censorship and sabotage. This inspired the development of peer-to-peer systems such as freenet, gnutella and mojonation.

Anderson’s lecture “Why Information Security is Hard” will argue that many, if not most, of the problems in information security can be explained using the language of microeconomics: network externalities, asymmetric information, moral hazard, adverse selection, liability dumping and the tragedy of the commons.

The lecture series is held in memory of the late professor Rosser, a UW–Madison professor of computer sciences and mathematics and director of the Mathematics Research Center, 1963-78.

For more information, call (608) 262-6616.