A B S T R A C T Until recently, computer security was an obscure discipline that seemed to have little relevance to everyday life. With the rapid growth of the Internet, e-commerce, and the widespread use of computers, computer security touches almost all aspects of daily life and all parts of society. Even those who do not use computers have information about them stored on computers. This paper reviews some aspects of the past and current state of computer security, and speculates about what the future of the eld will being.