Member of the team that developed ARPAnet, the breakthrough packet switching system that evolved into the Internet, Walker is an American engineer who is nationally recognized for his pioneering work on the DoD Computer Security Initiative, establishment of the National Computer Security Center, and the Defense Data Network. He built a 22-year career with the Department of Defense at the National Security Agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, but his family soon moved to Kansas City, Missouri. When he was in the sixth grade, they moved to Boston. Walker holds a BSEE degree from Northeastern University and an MSEE degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.
In 1983, he left the government and founded Trusted Information Systems, Inc. (TIS), serving as its President and Chief Executive Officer. Initially located in his garage on Shady Lane in Glenwood, Maryland, as the company grew, rather than move to Baltimore or the Washington D.C. suburbs, a small office building was constructed on land next to his new home on Rte. 97. TIS was a computer security research and development company, performing computer and communications (information) security research for organizations such as NSA, DARPA, ARL, AFRL, SPAWAR, and others. The first whitehouse.gov e-mail server was located at their headquarters.
TIS's operating system work directly affected BSD/OS, on which the Gauntlet Firewall was based, as well as Linux, FreeBSD, Darwin, and others. The company employed over 350 people and at various times it employed notable information security experts including David Elliott Bell, Martha Branstad, John Pescatore, Marv Schaefer, Steve Crocker, Marcus Ranum, John Williams, Steve Lipner, and Carl Ellison. Walker took the company public in 1996, and it soon afterward attempted to acquire PGP, Inc. The company was instead acquired in 1998 by Network Associates (NAI), which later became McAfee, who had already bought PGP, Inc. in 1997. The security research organization became NAI Labs, and the Gauntlet engineering and development organization was folded into Network Associates' engineering and development.
He has served as Chairman of the Technology Leadership Consortium, a volunteer group of leaders of technology organizations across the region. In that role he led the Informatics Initiative, an effort to recognize the significance of informatics in all aspects of the region's development. Walker received the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the first National Computer System Security Award. He also received the KPMG High Technology Entrepreneur Award and the Greater Baltimore Technology Council's "Baltimore's Extraordinary Technology Advocate" (BETA) Award.
He has been a member of the Board of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation and the Greater Baltimore Technology Council, as well as many private company Boards of Directors and several university Boards of Visitors. Walker has testified often before the U.S. Congress and is widely acknowledged as an expert and leader in information security technology and policy. He has served as President of Steve Walker and Associates and Managing Partner of Walker Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund specializing in the Mid Atlantic region.
