Susan Landau

Susan Landau. She is an American computer scientist and cybersecurity policy expert renowned for her work at the intersection of cryptography, digital privacy, and national security. Her career spans academia, industry, and government advising, where she has been a prominent voice on issues related to encryption policy and communications surveillance. Landau's research and advocacy have significantly influenced debates on balancing security with civil liberties in the digital age.

Early life and education

Landau completed her undergraduate studies in mathematics at Princeton University. She then earned a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in computer science from Cornell University, where her doctoral research focused on computational algebra. Her early academic work established a strong foundation in theoretical computer science, which later informed her applied policy analyses. This period also saw her developing expertise in algorithm design and complexity theory.

Career and research

Landau began her academic career as a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She later held the position of professor of cybersecurity policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In the technology industry, she worked as a senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems, focusing on network security and cryptographic protocols. Her research has extensively analyzed the societal impacts of surveillance technologies, with notable publications examining systems like the Clipper Chip proposal. She has also served as a senior policy advisor at Google, where she contributed to the company's positions on issues such as lawful access and data protection.

Policy work and advocacy

Landau is a leading advocate for strong encryption as a cornerstone of cybersecurity and privacy rights. She has provided expert testimony before the United States Congress, the European Parliament, and the United Kingdom Parliament on matters of surveillance and information security. She served on the National Academy of Sciences committee that produced the influential report "Bulk Collection of Signals Intelligence." Her advocacy often emphasizes the security risks of mandating backdoor access for law enforcement, arguing such measures weaken protections against cybercrime and state-sponsored hacking. She has been a frequent commentator for organizations like the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Awards and honors

Landau has been recognized with several prestigious fellowships, including being named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2015, she was awarded the Megan F. and Robert H. Rutledge Endowed Faculty Fellowship at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Her book "Surveillance or Security?" was recognized with the 2012 Surveillance Studies Book Prize. She has also received the 2011 Women of Vision Award for Social Impact from the Anita Borg Institute.

Selected publications

* *Surveillance or Security? The Risks Posed by New Wiretapping Technologies* (MIT Press, 2011) * *People Count: Contact-Tracing Apps and Public Health* (MIT Press, 2021) * *Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption* (co-authored with Whitfield Diffie; MIT Press, 1998, updated 2007) * Numerous articles in journals such as *Science*, *Communications of the ACM*, and *IEEE Security & Privacy*.

Category:American computer scientists Category:American cryptographers Category:Cybersecurity experts Category:Privacy advocates Category:1954 births Category:Living people