George Smith — Senior Fellow
George Smith has commented on the science and technology of national security for the last ten years in publications ranging from the Village Voice to the Wall Street Journal.
In 1992 he founded the Crypt Newsletter, an electronic publication which was the first to shed light on the illicit world of malicious software coders and computer virus-writers. Two years later, the research was put to book form in "The Virus Creation Labs" -- a first-hand account of the origins of the anti-virus industry and the worldwide spread of computer viruses. He also served as editor of vmyths.com, a well-known Internet site dedicated to piercing the veil of almost mystical lore surrounding computer security, when it was recommended as one of the leading sources of information on computer viruses and virus hoaxes by Consumer Reports magazine.
Smith was the first scholar to critically analyze the American government's claims on the national infrastructure's vulnerability to electronic attack. Often cited in news articles and academic papers on the subject, Smith's work has been called "timely and provocative" by Michael Vatis, the first director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center.
Smith earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Lehigh University in 1984 for the study of tissue lytic proteins produced by the human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus, a microorganism responsible for a type of "flesh-eating" disease in those with compromised immune systems. He has translated the experience in bacterial molecular biology to the study of biological and chemical weaponry and their potential for application as weapons of mass destruction.
As a continuing observer of the war on terror and national security affairs, Smith writes the arms technology column, "Weapon of the Week."
