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  • MIT CSAIL

    Computer password inventor Fernando Corbato dies at 93

    by 
    Jon Fingas
    Jon Fingas
    07.13.2019

    Computer security just lost one of its founders. Fernando "Corby" Corbato, credited with inventing the computer password, has died at the age of 93. The MIT researcher devised the concept of password-protected user accounts when establishing his Compatible Time-Sharing System, which let multiple people use a computer at the same time. It was just a matter of establishing "compartmentalization" and basic privacy, Corbato told the Wall Street Journal in a 2014 interview, but the move would help shape digital security going forward.