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Bill Cheswick logged into his first computer in 1969. Six years later, he was graduated from Lehigh University with a degree that looked like Computer Science.

Cheswick has worked on (and against) operating system security for over 30 years. He contracted for several years at Lehigh and the Naval Air Development Center working on systems programming and communications. In 1978 he worked at the American Newspaper Publishers Association/Research Institute, where he shared a patent for a hardware-based spelling checker, a device clearly after its time.

For the next nine years he worked for Systems and Computer Technology Corporation at a variety of universities including Temple University, LaSalle College, Harvard Business School, Manhattan College, NJIT, and several others. Duties included system management, consulting, software development, communications design and installation, PC evaluations, etc.

In 1987 (Morris minus 1) he joined Bell Laboratories as a Member of the Technical Staff, and worked there for over twelve years. He did early work on firewall design and implementation, including the first circuit-level gateway, for which he coined the term "proxy". Ches also worked on PC viruses, mailers, Internet munitions, and the Plan 9 operating system. He co-authored the first full book on firewalls, and has since toured the world giving media interviews and entertaining post-lunch security talks. Cliff Stoll, who is given to overstatement, has called Ches ``one of the seven avatars of the Internet.''

In 1998, Ches starting the Internet Mapping Project with Hal Burch. This work became to core technology of a Bell Labs spin-off, Lumeta Corporation, which explores the extent of corporate and government intranets and checks for host leaks that violate perimeter policies.

Ches has a wide interest in science. In his spare time he flies high-power model rockets, RC airplanes, and automates his home. He eats very plain food---boring by even American standards, and peppermint oil is his favorite insecticide.

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Updated: 03/22/04