Donn B. Parker (1929-2021) was an

information security Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorize ...

researcher and consultant and a 2001

Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

. Parker had over 50 years of experience in the computer field in computer programming, computer systems management, consulting, teaching, and research.

Early life and education

Parker earned BA (1952) and MA (1954) degrees in mathematics from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Career

Parker was a senior research engineer and systems manager for

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

for eight years and

Control Data Corporation Control Data Corporation (CDC) was a mainframe and supercomputer firm. CDC was one of the nine major United States computer companies through most of the 1960s; the others were IBM, Burroughs Corporation, DEC, NCR, General Electric, Honeywel ...

for eight years. He retired in 1997. In 2002, Parker proposed the

Parkerian Hexad The Parkerian hexad is a set of six elements of information security proposed by Donn B. Parker in 1998. The Parkerian hexad adds three additional attributes to the three classic security attributes of the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, a ...

, six atomic and orthogonal elements of information security that extend the traditional model of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (the

CIA triad Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorize ...

). He later became a retired emeritus senior consultant engaged in writing and lecturing, and his collected papers are archived at the

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

at the University of Minnesota. Parker passed away at the age of 91 on September 22, 2021.

Lectures

Parker lectured at conferences, seminars, and universities worldwide. He was the subject writer on computer crime for the Encyclopædia Britannica, Groliers Encyclopedia, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia of Computer Science. Parker lectured for the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Churchill Club of Silicon Valley, many universities, and the World Organization of Detectives.

Memberships

Parker became active in the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional member ...

(ACM) in 1954. He was elected Secretary of the ACM from 1966 to 1970 while serving on the ACM Council from 1964 to 1974 and was chairman of the professional standards and practices committee for several years. In addition, he is a member of the

Information Systems Security Association Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) is a not-for-profit, international professional organization of information security professionals and practitioners. It was founded in 1984, after work on its establishment started in 1982. ISSA pro ...

(ISSA) and is a

Certified Information Systems Security Professional CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) is an independent information security certification granted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, also known as (ISC)². As of January, 2022 there ...

(CISSP). He was the consulting editor and columnist for the Journal of Information Systems Security (Auerbach) from 1994 to 1997. Parker was involved with many other organizations. He is a grantee of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, and the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, and was the founder in 1986 (while at SRI International) of the International Information Integrity Institute (I-4) an ongoing confidential service to large, international corporations and governments now owned and operated by KPMG-UK.

Awards

In 1992, Parker received the

's Individual Achievement Award. In 1994, U.S. NIST/NSA awarded him the 1994 National Computer System Security Award and the Aerospace Computer Security Associates named him their Distinguished Lecturer. In 1996, he received MIS Infosecurity News' Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998, the Information Security Magazine profiled him as one of the top five “Infosecurity Pioneers,” In 2001 he was named a Fellow of the

“ r contributions to information security and professional ethics.”

Selected publications

Books

*''Crime by Computer'' (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976) *''Ethical Conflicts in Computer Science and Technology'' (AFIPS Press, 1979) *''Fighting Computer Crime'' (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1983) *''Computer Security Management'' (Reston Publishing, 1983) *''Ethical Conflicts in Information and Computer Science, Technology, and Business'' (QED Information Sciences, 1990) *''Computer Security Reference Book'' (Butterworth, 1993) *''Fighting Computer Crime, a New Framework for Protecting Information'' (John Wiley & Son, 1998)

Major reports

*Computer Abuse (SRI International, 1971) *Criminal Justice Resource Manuals on Computer Crime published by the US Department of Justice *Computer Security Techniques (US Government Printing Office, 1980 and 1989)

References

External links

Oral history interview with Donn B. Parker

, University of Minnesota.
Another Giant Falls

Donn B. Parker on Computer Chronicles - March 26, 1984

Donn B. Parker
at the Los Angeles Times *
Shoulders of Infosec: Donn Parker

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Donn 1929 births 2021 deaths Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery SRI International people General Dynamics University of California, Berkeley alumni Control Data Corporation