Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier (ˈʃnaɪ.ər; born January 15, 1963) is an American cryptographer, computer security professional, privacy specialist, and writer. Schneier is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society as of November, 2013. He is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, and The Tor Project; and an advisory board member of Electronic Privacy Information Center and VerifiedVoting.org. He is the author of several books on general security topics, computer security and cryptography and is a squid enthusiast. In 2015, Schneier received the EPIC Lifetime Achievement Award from Electronic Privacy Information Center. Bruce Schneier is the son of Martin Schneier, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, attending P.S. 139 and Hunter College High School. After receiving a physics bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester in 1984, he went to American University in Washington, D.C., and got his master's degree in computer science in 1988. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D from the University of Westminster in London, England, in November 2011. The award was made by the Department of Electronics and Computer Science in recognition of Schneier's 'hard work and contribution to industry and public life'. Schneier was a founder and chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security (now BT Managed Security Solutions). He worked for IBM once they acquired Resilient Systems where Schneier was CTO until he left at the end of June 2019. In 1991, Schneier was laid off from his job and started writing for computer magazines. Later he decided to write a book on applied cryptography "since no such book existed". He took his articles, wrote a proposal to John Wiley and they bought the proposal. In 1994, Schneier published Applied Cryptography, which details the design, use, and implementation of cryptographic algorithms.