BY PETER G. NEUMANN
REFLECTIONS ON
COMPUTER-RELATED RISKS
Tracing the history of exposing and elucidating the wide variety of
system problems and associated social implications of uses and misuses
of computing technology.

Computer-related technologies have changed enormously over the years, with huge advances in processor power and storage capacity, high-speed networking, and highly distributed systems. Client-server and virtual-machine architectures seem to be simplifying implementation. Internet browsers have significantly raised the level of abstraction for attaining almost universal interoperability. Strong cryptography has become more widely available, and is becoming easier to use. Improvements in static-analysis tools and formal methods are having visible results. Many ACM members have been instrumental in some wonderful advances, and have been involved in important technological and social activities. For example, Parnas, Dijkstra, Hoare, Wirth, and many others contributed to system architectures and programming practice. We have also experienced significant advances in networking, graphics, and many other crucial areas.

Conversely, trustworthiness of operating systems and application software is generally poor, particularly with respect to critical requirements such as security, reliability, survivability, evolvability, maintainability, interoperability, and predictable upgradability. Common flaws keep recurring—buffer overflows, faulty bounds checks, and so on. Denial-of-service attacks are easily

created and deployed, but largely lacking adequate defenses. Strong cryptography is difficult to embed securely in systems and applications. Software engineering is still more of an ideal concept rather than a disciplined practice; its principled precepts seem to be widely ignored. The Internet has amplified the risks, and seems to encourage various spams, scams, and spoofs. Trustworthiness and particularly security are