Instrumentation Research Weizmann Institute of Science Summer 1986 Hard Drive Research Harvard Univeristy 2006
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Instrumentation Research Weizmann Institute of Science Summer 1986 Hard Drive Research Harvard Univeristy 2006 Background and Bio Career #1: Science writer & entrepreneur 1983–1987 — Massachusetts Institute of Technology •SB Chemistry; SB Political Science; SB Science, Technology & Society •Thesis: Radio Research, McCarthyism and Paul F. Lazarsfeld 1987–1988 — Columbia University School of Journalism •MS Journalism (Science Journalism) •Thesis: Tenant Screening Services in the United States — 1988–2002 — Freelance writer, computer consultant, entrepreneur •1988–1993 — Science writer @ The Christian Science Monitor •1988–1990 — Consultant @ Polaroid, medical imaging workstation •1995–2002 — President @ Vineyard.NET Internet Service Provider •1997–2002 — Columnist @ The Boston Globe •2002–2005 — Columnist @ Technology Review •1998–2005 — Founder, Treasurer, Chief Scientist @ Sandstorm Simson L. Garfinkel Bio !2 First focus area — impact of computers on society applicant's credit and eviction history is displayed on the operator's computer Tenant Screening screen within fifteen seconds. "People get all of the information before they hang up the phone," said Saltz. Services or "We give the little guys access to big brother," said Neil Van Sant, co-owner of Ties Landlord Information Exchange Tenant Blacklisting? (Howell, New Jersey). Much of the infor- mation reported by TSSs has always been of her allegations are true and that nothing available, but until now it has always been BY SIMSON L. GARFINKEL he has done is illegal. too cumbersome for landlords to search Attempts to regulate TSSs have failed in the records. Screening services change uth Cisneros is trapped in her several states and in Congress. As for the that. apartment by a computer she has federal Fair Credit Reporting Act - the The theory is that if a person has a histo- R never seen. Seven years ago, law that Congress passed in 1970 to stymie ry of being a problem tenant the behavior Cisneros' abuses in the credit reporting industry - pattern is likely to continue. But some of landlord of three months wanted her out. few of its terms are applicable to TSSs, and the information reported, like successfully E L E C T R O S P H "I don't want you here and that's that," the agency which polices the law says that defending a rent strike in court, can only E R E Cisneros said the landlord told her. it may not even apply. be used by landlords to discriminate l - lEU"l* l l a l MaEM Eaaa U *a a ll * K W * a * * a lNusV N *EaE l The landlord sued to have Cisneros evicted, but the judge dismissed the suit as groundless. At the end of the year, Cisneros' landlord had a change of heart and renewed the lease. Twice more the cycle repeated. The only real effect of the The Dean of Disaster suits was to put a notation in a private company's computer that somebody had filed three times to get Cisneros evicted. The problem is that nearly all of South- Plane crashes, nuclear reactor accidents, ern California's landlords use that com- puter to help evaluate rental applications. If somebody has ever tried to evict you, explosions at chemical you don't get the apartment. Often you plants - if computers were at fault, don't even get a phone call back. In March 1987, Cisneros applied to live in the Promenade Apartments. Her appli- Peter Neumann knows all about it. cation was rejected because the computer, operated by the UD Registry Inc., provid- ed the Promenade with a record of the three eviction attempts. Even a letter from By Simson L. Garfinkel Cisneros' new landlord saying that she was a model tenant wasn't enough to counter- act the judgement of the computer. California state law forbids companies e's a fantastic storyteller, he's always ready with a last page of Communications of the Associationfor Compu from reporting eviction actions in which the tenant is victorious. But the owner of pun, and he can play two recorders at once - ing Machinery, the journal of the ACM. He's also putting th the computer, Harvey Saltz, said having a _ dismissed i!i PQt Sl@e as having the H simultaneously piping out both melody and accom- finishing touches on a book about software safety and risk tenant win in court. Cisneros, along with `1- eight other people, have filed suit against paniment - while he beats the rhythm with his foot But to Its tentative title? "RISKS: The Book - UDR for damages resulting from faulty as opposed to RISKS reporting. The case is still pending. hundreds of thousands of people around the world, Peter the movie Computerized tenant screening services Big Brother is Watching against a tenant who knows his rights. "It's and RISKS the game," Neumann jokes. (TSSs) like UDR now operate in many Most services charge between $10 and not a credit check its's an organization G. Neumann cities. TSS operators say they provide an $30 for a report. This charge can be passed check," said Phyllis Salowe-Kaye, presi- is best known for moderating RISKS-Forum, Neumann got his start with computers in 1953 as an indispensable tool that allows landlords to on to tenants as an "application fee." The dent of the New Jersey Tenants Organiza- distinguish "good" tenants from "bad" search is initiated by a telephone call from tion. one of the Internet's most widely read electronic forums. undergraduate at Harvard. There he worked on the Har- ones. Landlords say screening is their only a landlord. The landlord tells the operator A screening service's main source of defense against destructive tenant-s who the name, social security number, driver's information comes from workers who What are computer vard Mark I - the same computer that was incapacitated know how to use the courts to avoid paying license number, and last known address of travel to housing courts and record eviction rent. As for Cisneros, Saltz said that none the applicant. In the case of UDR, the filings and settlements. But the collection RISKS? Any use of com- by the first "bug" (a moth that flew into a relay). After SHELTERFORCE 0 9 puters that might acci- earning a doctorate in applied mathematics at Harvard an dentally lead to loss of a doctorate from the Technische Hochschule in Darm- life, property, or money. stadt, Germany, he headed Bell Labs's participation in the They are dangers as Multics project - one of the earliest attempts to build a Especially relevant given the increased focus on Algorithmic Transparencysimple as sending credit &reliable Accountability and secure computer system. card numbers by e-mail Working on Multics taught Neumann the futility of buili (which could bounce ing risk-free systems: Every time he tried to design a sys- Simson L. Garfinkel Bio into unauthorized tem that had no weak links and no security flaws, new one !3 hands) and as deadly as would appear. bugs in medical equip- Today, Neumann is at SRI International's Computer ment Disasters are a Science Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, where he mainstay, including has worked on numerous projects for government and numerous plane crash- industry. Despite his work in software safety, Neumann es, nuclear reactor acci- says that music is his life's great passion: In addition to dents, and explosions at playing piano, bassoon, and recorders, Neumann sings chemical plants - all madrigals and is a trustee of the Greenwood Music Camp brought about, in part, in Cummington, Massachusetts. by faulty computer The RISKS mailing list started in 1985. At the time, soi systems. members of the Association for Computing Machinery's Over the years. the executive council wanted the ACM to go on record decry- ou put in more readers of RISKS have cast a wide net, sending contribu- ing then-President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, o Dmplexity trying tions to Neumann on everything from space missions that "Star Wars," as too risky. The idea didn't go over well with have been scrubbed because of typos to the risks of ) add reliability, the rest of the members of the council. As a compromise, remote-control garage-door openers and answering ACM's president, Adele Goldberg, asked Neumann to head nd that complex- machines. RISKS readers are big on privacy: Some of the the Committee on Computers and Public Policy and create y itself issus- earliest descriptions of the National Security Agency's a public forum for discussing risks to the public caused b (NSA) proposed Clipper encryption ect, and hence chip appeared in the use of computers. "An online newsgroup seemed like RISKS-Forum, quickly followed by technical, social, and the most effective way to do that," Neumann recalls. I iore risky. political discussions about the dangers posed by the gov- caught up with Neumann by phone and e-mail and asked ernment-sponsored encryption standard. him about his favorite topic. Unlike other online forums, RISKS maintains a consis- tently high level of discussion and a low level of noise. "It's SG: How many people read RISKS? a forum of discussion that doesn't just run wild and ram- PN: I wish I could tell you... It's clearly one of the most pant," says Dorothy Denning, chair of computer science at widely read Internet news groups. The answer is probabl Georgetown University. Equally impressive is the number somewhere around 100,000, but I have no idea. I have no of postings from highly respected members of the comput- way of guessing. All I know is that I keep getting mail fror er science community. "It's a very good source of informa- people I've never heard of, and the distribution list keeps tion," Denning says.