Dan Farmer

Who is Dan Farmer?

Dan Farmer is an American computer security researcher and programmer who was a pioneer in the development of vulnerability scanners for Unix operating systems and computer networks.

Farmer developed his first software suite while he was a computer science student at Purdue University in 1989. Gene Spafford, one of his professors, helped him to start the project. The software, called the Computer Oracle and Password System, comprises several small, specialized vulnerability scanners designed to identify security weaknesses in one part of a Unix operating system.

In 1995, Farmer and Wietse Venema developed a second vulnerability scanner called the Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks. When they published SATAN, some network administrators and law enforcement personnel believed that hackers would use it to identify and break into vulnerable computers. Consequently, SGI terminated Farmer's employment. Within a few years, the use of vulnerability scanners such as SATAN became an accepted method for auditing computer and network security.