FREE FOR THE CODE

Robert Morris, a cryptographic genius and one of the founding fathers of the Unix operating system, has died at the age of 78. Morris obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Harvard in 1957 and 58 respectively, and then worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1960 to 1986. At Bell Labs, Morris wrote Unix’s math library, the crypt program, and the encryption scheme that would be used for Unix user authentication for years to come. From 1986 to 1994, Morris worked for the US National Security Agency (NSA), where he served as the chief scientist of the National Computer Security Center. As chief scientist, he was involved with creating the Rainbow Series of standard security practices, and with electronic attacks on Saddam Hussein’s government in the lead-up to the 1991 Gulf War. Because his work for the US government is classified, it’s impossible to say exactly what he did as chief scientist, but he has admitted that he helped the FBI decode encrypted evidence.