Mr. Barry Schrager

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he currently lives in Mountain View, Colorado where he is President of Xbridge Systems. He received his B.S. Degree in Physics from the University of Illinois in 1968 and a Master?s degree in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University. Co-designer and developer of early commercial computer security software products, he is credited as one of the people who started the concept of data security when he founded and was the first Manager of the SHARE Security Project in 1972. The project delivered a series of requirements to IBM in 1974 including data protection by default and algorithmic grouping of users and resources. From 1968 to 1978 he served as Assistant Director of the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle Computer Center, where activity of student hackers on the center?s time-shared system led him to investigate methods and tools to achieve greater security. When IBM delivered its security product, RACF, in 1976, it did not meet the requirements and IBM told him they were not achievable. So, he and colleague, Eberhard Klemens, developed a prototype Access Control Facility (ACF) which met the requirements and was used by customers such as General Motors, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, Britain?s MI-5, the Federal Reserve System and the Executive Office of the President of the United States. In 1978 he and Eberhard Klemens teamed up with Scott Krueger to found SKK, Inc. and refined this computer security software product as ACF2 for its first customer, London Life Insurance (Ontario, Canada). To date, ACF2 has generated well over $1 Billion in revenues. When he sold SKK, Inc., it had a 60% market share against IBM?s RACF and CA?s Top Secret. Under his leadership, SKK developed the first VM operating system security product, ACF2/VM, and the first automated Operating System auditing product, Examine/MVS, now known as CA-Auditor. He has continued to be an active part of the IBM mainframe software community in helping develop products that enhance the analysis and reporting capabilities of ACF2 and RACF and delivery systems such as Data Direct?s Shadow product. In 2012, he joined Xbridge Systems as President & COO. He is a member of the Mainframe Hall of Fame and is considered to be one of the world?s foremost experts in the field of mainframe data security and compliance.