Computer Security

Present day (2017) computer systems are fundamentally insecure, placing a growing fraction of the infrastructure of civilization at risk of malicious intrusion and control. Secure operating systems and other improvements in cybersecurity are not only necessary to protect today’s systems, but also to support trustworthy software for tomorrow’s development of High Throughput Atomically Precise Manufacturing and Artificial General Intelligence. Foresight Institute has a long-term interest in computer security. See, for example, the article by Norman Hardy “Are Viruses Inevitable?” published in Foresight Update 11, March 15, 1991. This was followed by a “Trusty computing workshop” at the October 1994 Senior Associates Gathering. At a Mini-Gathering of Senior Associates in May of 1997, Dean Tribble noted that molecular nanotechnology will require very reliable software to control very complex systems, and briefly discussed some of the issues to be faced in making secure operating systems.