Jim Smith - Rest In Peace
The IISF is deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of James (Jim) Smith, former Chair of IISF.
Jim was very well known and highly respected as a leading figure in the Information Security community. He was very knowledgeable, always modest and generous with his time, witty, incredibly supportive and very good company. He will be missed, and we are poorer without him.
-IISF committee
Funeral Mass
Removal on Friday evening (December 13th) to Holy Rosary Church, Greystones for 7pm evening prayer. Funeral Mass on Saturday morning at 10am (which can be viewed live here) followed by committal at 1pm in The Victorian Chapel, Mount Jerome Crematorium. Condolences here.
Jim Smith
ESB Chief Information Security Officer 1989-2011
Source: TECHARCHIVES.IRISH
Amateur radio came first. I was licensed by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs as an amateur radio experimenter back in 1974 – the year before I went to Trinity to study engineering. I took some computer science courses there – I recall writing a traffic lights simulator in PL/1 for one project – but I concentrated mainly on electronic and electrical engineering, graduating as an engineer in 1979. Later on however, I became a pioneer in the cyber security world instead of engineering.
The ESB hired me as an engineer in 1979. I worked in the technical computing service, assisting engineers with their applications and computing infrastructure. A separate computing service provided support for accounts and billing systems. There was a magnificent split – pure animosity – between those two groups.
I was sent on various training courses, mainly about minicomputers. ESB used Data General Eclipses and Digital Equipment VAXes on the engineering side of the company. But its senior management sent out strong signals that the VAX family, which was assembled in Galway, was the right choice for most requirements. We used a VAX 11/750 for power system simulation and operation and, later on, I worked in the Stephens Court office with an 11/780 that ESB bought for design and construction work on the Moneypoint power station.
My earliest encounter with data communications was in or around 1980. We had a 300 baud acoustic coupler, built into a magnificent hardwood box, that was attached to a handset for dialling out through the telephone network. It was only used for proof of concept purposes. We never found a serious application for it. But I remember taking it home, connecting it up and getting it to connect to our systems......
Read more from Jim's timeline at TECHARCHIVES.IRISH
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