Computer password inventor Fernando Corbato dies at 93

[steven36]

RIP Fernando “Corby” Corbató, inventor of the password (1926-2019)

 

 

Last Friday, legendary MIT computer scientist Fernando “Corby” Corbató passed away at his home in Newton, Massachusetts. He was 93.

 

The Oakland-born researcher was responsible for several pivotal advances in the computer science space, most notably the password, which he invented during his pioneering work in computer time sharing.

 

Corbató led the development of the Computer Time-Sharing System (CTSS), which is regarded as one of the world’s first operating systems. This allowed multiple people to use a computer at the same time, accelerating the pace in which programmers worked. It’s also credited as the first computer system to use passwords.

 

 

For the first time, this allowed developers working on shared computing systems to have their own private accounts, where they could store and protect their work.

 

CTSS also pioneered an early version of email, instant messaging, and word processing. Programmers could write code with a text editor called QED, which was the predecessor of ed, vi, and vim. Ken Thompson, who later designed Google’s Go programming language, also contributed to the development of QED, adding the ability to select and edit text with regular expressions.

 

Following his work with CTSS, Corbató started work on another effort called Multics, which had an enormous influence on the computers of today. It partially inspired Unix, and was used by Dennis Ritchie, who, along with Brian Kernighan, developed the C programming language, which remains widely in use today.

 

Corbató’s work also inspired MIT to launch Project MAC, which was the precursor to the Laboratory for Computer Science, and would later merge with the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab to create the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

 

 

The MIT CSAIL is now home to 600 researchers, and is responsible for some of the most impressive advancements in artificial intelligence.

 

Corbató was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, and was an alumni of the California Institute of Technology, as well as MIT. He’s survived by his wife, Emily Corbató; his daughters Carolyn and Nancy; his stepsons David and Jason Gish; his brother Charles; and five grandchildren.

 

Source

[luisam]

4 hours ago, sl0pth3p1g said:

It seems funny to me in this year 2019 that someone would have to invent using passwords! 

 

It's even funnier that currently there is a tendency to implement systems avoiding the use of paswords and replacing it with other means of user identification!

[mp68terr]

Passwords have been used well before computer time. Allowing several people to use the same computer is another thing, an advance indeed.

[steven36]

15 hours ago, luisam said:

 

It's even funnier that currently there is a tendency to implement systems avoiding the use of paswords and replacing it with other means of user identification!

In windows 10 world maybe  but over all they along ways from replacing it  im not going give them a ID just so i can log in my PC . I have my PC even on Linux were it logs on without one but  to do anything that require root you need my password . Windows never really utilized   paaswords to make it more safe no way like other OS do back in the XP days i could simply boot in safe mode and remove your password and get in your system . I  fixed peoples PCs  who forgot there password  by booting in safe mode and removing it. Only thing windows ever used it for is to log on or if you use a Microsoft account on Windows . What i do is just use different passwords when i make a new account  somewhere and if they can break into my pc  from  my 256 bit aes encrypted connection  they want get much noway i really don't have nothing worth stealing. Only mostly people who don't care about privacy keep there money in the cloud lol.

 

You will have worse problems without passwords  with what they want  to replace it with identity theft and  privacy issues.  . Most Big Tech sites are are trying  replace passwords with your phone number  from  what I  seen , they using there logins as a way to spy on you . There not getting mine im not a mobile user signed in too Google  were they have my location  at all times.  I don't even have no mobile phone but a burner and it don't have time on it right now , so i have no number to give them just like many other people who use PCs don't have no mobile number. Many topics on the internet were people are fusing about it, If they want personal info from me and I cant fake it i just don't use there service its just that simple. i just use something more private instead,  If i buy something online i just  do it in someone else's name that don't care about there privacy . .In this day and age it's very easy to do because most of you don't care about your privacy no way. So i can buy stuff from my own house online without telling them who i am even on the other computer on my network. 

 

Google claim they was going  kill passwords by  2017  in 2016 and here it is 2019 and still not done it . How do i get in my Google burner account i made without a phone number or emial in 2019 . I switch to the ip range i signed up with a  vpn and use a password.