Simson L. Garfinkel is an Associate Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and an associate of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. His research interests include computer forensics, the emerging field of usability and security, personal information management, privacy, information policy and terrorism.

Garfinkel is the author or co-author of fourteen books on computing. He is perhaps best known for his book Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century. Garfinkel's most successful book, Practical UNIX and Internet Security (co-authored with Gene Spafford), has sold more than 250,000 copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages since the first edition was published in 1991.

Simson Garfinkel received three Bachelor of Science degrees from MIT in 1987, a Master's of Science in Journalism from Columbia University in 1988, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT in 2005.

Recent Publications:

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You can find a complete list of the courses that I have taught on my courses page.

Current Research Areas:


You can find a complete list of Garfinkel’s research on his research page.

Current Teaching:

In the fall of 2009 I will be teaching:
You can find a complete list of the courses that I have taught on my courses page.

Useful Resources:




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