Computer Password Inventor and WWII Navy Veteran Fernando Corbato Passes from Earth at Age 93
Fernando Corbato is to the Computer Industry like a water spring is to a mighty river.
Computer password inventor Fernando Corbato got hooked on debugging systems when he was serving in the United States Navy during WWII. He went on to get a PhD in physics at MIT and went straight to work upon graduation in MIT’s Computer Department.
He was an early pioneer in computer time-sharing systems but is best known for creating password protection of files in large computer systems. He also pioneered many aspects of operating system routines that were adopted industry wide and are still the foundation of many operations to this day.
Ken Thompson (who developed Unix OS), was directly influenced by Fernando Corbato. The entire computer world would be not as wonderful without the pioneering work of this US Navy veteran, Fernando Corbato.
Category: Tony Rollo Blog
