In observance of Father’s Day, I’m identifying some of the fathers of cybersecurity. These are very brief summaries of three influential men whose contributions created cyberspace as we know it. They are listed in chronological order. This is absolutely not an exhaustive list, but rather my personal top three.
Charles Babbage - Father of Computers
On Day 14, we discussed some of the Mothers of Computers, Lady Ada Lovelace among them. The programming she did was for the analytical engine that her contemporary Babbage invented. Babbage designed a digital programmable computer in the days when a computer was anything that added in basic mathematical computations, a device that computes. He designed a differential engine and an analytical engine. The calculations they were designed to run are simple compared to what today’s devices can do, but at the time it was groundbreaking.
Alan Turing - Father of Modern Cryptography
Alan Turing, like Babbage, was a mathematician. His work led him into cryptography during World War II. He also developed the Turing Test, also known as the imitation game, which is used to determine the level of intelligent behavior in a machine. It was not until 2014 that the first machine passed the Turing Test. Sadly, Turing took his own life in 1954 as a result of court-mandated treatment as punishment for his homosexuality.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - Father of the World Wide Web
Berners-Lee designed an information management system in 1989 for use on the burgeoning internet. This system of files and location ids is what we now know as the world wide web. He further developed the web by working on the first connection between an HTTP client and server. Berners-Lee serves as the director of the World Wide Web Consortium.
Note: It is entirely unintentional that all three of the fathers I have mentioned are English. I did not realize it until I was reading back through it before posting.
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