Parker, Donn B.

Donn B. Parker, pioneer and expert in the field of computer and information crime and security.

Donn B. Parker, pioneer and expert in the field of computer and information crime and security. Parker was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a BA and MA in Mathematics (1952 and 1954). In 1954 he joined General Dynamics Corporation as a programmer, eventually becoming manager of programming in computer operations. In 1962, Parker went to work for Control Data Corporation as a manager of computer services and computer research.

In 1969 he joined the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as the director of computer resources. Parker stayed with SRI for the next 30 years researching, collecting information, and writing about national and international computer abuse/crime incidents and trends. Funding for his work came predominantly from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Justice, and later from the United States Department of Defense and SRI's International Information Integrity Institute (I-4). I-4 was a membership organization providing confidential security risk management assistance for business organizations. Parker founded I-4 in 1986 and was the first director.

Starting in 1997, Parker served as Senior Management Systems Consultant (retired) for the computer security program at SRI Consulting, which changed its name to AtomicTangerine in 2000.

Parker was also active in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 1954, and as an elected officer and committee chairman in the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS).

Parker lectured internationally, and authored and co-authored books and reports including, Crime by Computer (1976), Ethical Conflicts in Computer Science and Technology (1978 and 1990), Computer Security Management (1983), Fighting Computer Crime (1983), and Fighting Computer Crime: a New Framework for Protecting Information (1998), as well as numerous articles.

Stanford Research Institute was established in 1946 as a part of Stanford University. SRI separated from Stanford in 1970 and in 1977 changed its name to SRI International. SRI International established SRI Consulting, whose Information Security Program was later named AtomicTangerine, Inc. in 2000. In 2001, RedSiren, Inc. acquired AtomicTangerine to form RedSiren Technologies, Inc.