Professor Dorothy Denning

Dorothy Denning is recognized as one of the world's leading experts in information security. Her research has laid foundations in the areas of cryptology, information warfare, and data security. She is known for lattice-based access control (LBAC), intrusion detection systems (IDS), and other cyber security innovations. She published four books and over 200 articles. Inducted into the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame in 2012, she is now Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis, Naval Postgraduate School.

Denning received her PhD from Purdue University in 1975 (advisor: H.D. Schwetman). After graduation she joined the faculty of the CS Department at Purdue as an assistant professor and she was promoted to associate professor in 1981. After leaving Purdue in 1983, she held positions at SRI International and Digital Equipment Corporation and at Georgetown University, where was the Callahan Family Professor of Computer Science, Director of the Georgetown Institute of Information Assurance, and chair of the Computer Science Department. Lastly she was professor in the Department of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA, and was one of the faculty associated with the Center on Terrorism and Irregular Warfare and with the Center for Information Systems Security Studies and Research.

She is an ACM Fellow and recipient of several prestigious awards, including the 2002 Augusta Ada Lovelace Award, the 1999 National Computer Systems Security Award, and the 2004 Harold F. Tipton Award. In November 2001, she was named a Time magazine innovator. She has been named to the ISSA Hall of Fame (2003), awarded the CSO COMPASS award (2003), named as both a CISSP and as a CISM honoris causa, and elected as a Fellow of the ACM (1995). In 2008 ACM's special interest group on security, audit and control (ACM SIGSAC) bestowed their Outstanding Innovator Award upon Dr. Denning. She was named a fellow of the International Information Security Certification Consortium (ISC2). In 2010 she was named a distinguished fellow of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA). In 2012 she was among the first inductees into the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame.

Professor Denning has testified before the U.S. Congress on encryption policy and cyber terrorism, and has served in leadership and advisory positions with government agencies and private sector organizations. She is a past president of the International Association of Cryptologic Research.