Loren Kohnfelder
Loren Kohnfelder invented what is today called public key infrastructure (PKI) in his May 1978 MIT S.B. (BSCSE) thesis, which described a practical means of using public key cryptography to secure network communications.
The Kohnfelder thesis introduced[1] the terms "certificate" and "certificate revocation list" as well as numerous other concepts now established as important parts of PKI. The X.509 certificate specification that provides the basis for SSL, S/MIME and most modern PKI implementations are based Kohnfelder's thesis.[2]
He was also the co-creator, with Praerit Garg, of the STRIDE model of security threats, widely used in threat modeling.
In 2021 he published the book Designing Secure Software with No Starch Press.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ "Proposed Model for Outsourcing PKI", Christopher McLaughlin, Royal Holloway, University of London, Technical Report RHUL-MA-2008-10, 2008-01-15
- ^ "Certificates [Koh78]", in Design Principles and Patterns for Computer Systems That Are Simultaneously Secure and Usable, Simson L. Garfinkel, PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2005. p. 204. https://simson.net/thesis/
- ^ "Designing Secure Software". nostarch.com. No Starch Press. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2024.