I started working at the UW in 1990. My background is in computer programming and UNIX system administration on several platforms. From 1996 until 2003, I was the senior computer security incident response analyst and system/network security consultant for the UW. Since then, I have focused on research and development of tools/techniques dealing with advanced threats.
Many years ago, I also supported World Wide Web services including the
initial prototype and subsequent support of UW's original
(now retired) Weber
web service (and proud father of the
Weber Guy).
I taught the R870: Unix System Administration - A Survival Course Education & Training course for about 10 years, lead the team that developed the first course on Cyberterrorism for UW Educational Outreach and in Autumn 2003 co-taught the initial offering of INFO 498AA special topics course on Computer Security Incident Response.
I was a founding member, and currently serve as Chief Legal and Ethics Officer, of the Honeynet Project, as well as a long-standing member of Seattle's Agora computer security group.
The following bios are usable for conference organizers, etc.
Dave Dittrich is a Research Scientist/Engineer Principal at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. He is also a member of the Honeynet Project and Seattle's "Agora" comptuer security group. Dave has also served as a member on one of the University of Washington's Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. Dave is perhaps most widely known for his research into Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack tools and host/network forensics. He was one of the first to lead workshops on "Active Defense" and to consider the legal and ethical boundaries of computer network defense. He has presented talks and courses at dozens of computer security conferences, workshops, and government/private organizations world wide, contributed articles and chapters to several magazines and books, and co-authored the first complete book on DDoS, titled "Internet Denial of Service: Attack and Defense Mechanisms." He, along with Erin Kenneally, is a co-author of the Department of Homeland Security document, "The Menlo Report: Ethical Principles Guiding Information and Communication Technology Research," published in the Federal Register in December, 2011. His home page can be found at http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/
Dave Dittrich is a Research Scientist/Engineer Principal at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington (APL-UW) and has served on one of the UW's Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. His background is in computer security incident response and dealing with massive distributed attack tools that take over the computers of millions of individuals on a regular basis for all kinds of financial crimes, political protests, or just fighting in online forums by disrupting services for extended periods of time. This led him in turn to research the ethical and legal bounds within which "white hat" researchers can justifiably act to respond to "black hat" hackers and criminals.
David Dittrich has been actively involved in security operations for nearly 20 years. He got his start supporting others whose computers had been compromised and maintains an applied focus to his research, striving to teach others what he has learned. Dave was the first person to publicly describe Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 1999, precursors to today's botnets, and has a keen interest in identifying technical, legal, and ethical options to allow advanced responses to advanced threats. Dave was one of the original members of the Honeynet Project and has served as an Officer for much of the group's history (currently as Chief Legal and Ethics Officer). He coined the term "Active Response Continuum" in 2005 to describe the socio-technical hurdles that defenders must overcome and to guide researchers and security operators in bridging the gaps between skill levels of responders and between private actors and law enforcement, all the while acting in ways that maintain trust and confidence from the general public. Recently, Dave has published several documents concerning the ethical issues faced by computer security researchers and others responding to advanced malware threats, and has served as a member on one of the University of Washington's Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. He, along with Erin Kenneally, are co-authors of the Department of Homeland Security document, "The Menlo Report: Ethical Principles Guiding Information and Communication Technology Research," published in the Federal Register in December, 2011. His home page is http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/
Dave Dittrich is a Research Scientist/Engineer Principal at the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington. He has worked at the University of Washington since 1990. He is a member and Cheif Legal and Ethics Officer for the Honeynet Project, member of Seattle's "Agora" computer security group, and has served as a member on one of the University of Washington's Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. Dave is perhaps most widely known for his research into Distributed Denial of Service attack tools, starting with the first public analyses of DDoS and an invited talk at the November 1999 CERT Distributed System Intruder Tools Workshop and leading to talks at SANS, the USENIX Security Symposium, JASON summer workshop, DDoS BoF sessions at RSA 2000, NANOG, and SANS. Dave recieved one of SANS' Security Technology Leadership Awards in 2000 for his work in understanding DDoS tools, and was named by Information Security Magazine as one of the "Security Seven" for 2005 (representing the education sector.) Dave has authored chapters in the first edition of the Honeynet Project's "Know Your Enemy" and "The Hacker's Challenge", co-authored two articles with Kenneth Himma -- "Active Response to Computer Intrusions" and "Hackers, Crackers, and Computer Criminals" -- for the "Handbook on Information Security" (John Wiley and Sons, 2003) and co-authored the first complete book on DDoS, titled "Internet Denial of Service: Attack and Defense Mechanisms" (Mirkovic, Dietrich, Dittrich, and Ryher, Prentice Hall PTR, December, 2004.) In the area of Computer Forensics, Dave has taught Unix Forensic Analysis at the Black Hat Briefings, lead the Honeynet Project's popular Forensic Challenge in 2001, and both taught in and co-chaired SANS' first forensic track at SANS FIRE '01, and has guest lectured and collaborated on labs with faculty at several Universities and Community Colleges. Dave is a leading researcher of the Active Response Continuum", involving the legal, ethical, and technical frameworks for responding to large-scale computer attacks. He has presented on the topic at an I4 meeting; several Agora workshops in 2001 and 2003; a workshop at George Mason University in 2005; panels at SecureWorld Expo Seattle, Washington State Bar Association Cybercrime III conference, and American Bar Association summer meeting in 2004; a keynote address at the 2003 Society for the Policing of Cyberspace (POLCYB) conference in Richmond, BC, Canada; and a talk at AusCERT 2005 in Brisbane, Australia. Board (IRB) Committees since 2009. He, along with Erin Kenneally, are co-authors of the Department of Homeland Security document, "The Menlo Report: Ethical Principles Guiding Information and Communication Technology Research," published in the Federal Register in December, Dave has also spoken at CanSecWest in Vancouver, Canada, OlymFair in Seoul, South Korea, HAL 2001 in the Netherlands, AusCERT in Brisbane, Australia, and to groups at the NSA, CIA, DoD, and the FBI Academy. In his "spare" time, Dave enjoys photography (a side business), hiking, rock climbing, and ski mountaineering the volcanoes and Cascade mountain range in the Pacific Northwest. His massive home page can be found at http://staff.washington.edu/dittrich/