Paul Vixie

Country:	USA
LinkedIn:	Paul Vixie
Featured in the ICANN 76 - Cancún playing card deck

Paul Vixie is the VP of Security at Amazon Web Services. Before that, he was the Founder and CEO of Farsight Security from July 2013 to November 2021. He is the author of several RFCs and well-known UNIX system programs, among them, SENDS, proxynet, rtty, and Vixie cron. He was elected to ARIN's board of trustees in 2004 and reelected in 2007 and 2010. Paul was elected chairman in 2009 and 2010 but did not seek chairmanship in 2011.

Vixie is a co-founder of ISC and worked as its CEO and President before transitioning to his role at Farsight Security. At the time of that transition, ISC sold its security-related assets to Farsight.

In 2014, Vixie was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as an "Internet Innovator."

Involvement with ICANN

Vixie was a founding member of both the RSSAC and the SSAC. He departed the SSAC in 2015. He is a current member of the RSSAC.

Work

In 1998, while he was employed by Digital Equipment Corporation, he started working on the popular internet domain name server BIND, of which he is the primary author and architect, until release 8.

After he left DEC, in 1994, he founded the Internet Software Consortium with Rick Adams and Carl Malamud to support BIND and other software for the Internet. The activities of Internet Software Consortium were assumed by a new company, ISC in 2004.

In 1995, he co-founded the Palo Alto Internet Exchange, and after Metromedia Fiber Network bought it in 1999 he served as the MFN Chief Technology Officer, and later as the president of PAIX.

In 1998, he co-founded MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System), a California nonprofit company with the goal of stopping email abuse.

He also used to run his own consulting business, Vixie Enterprises.

In November 2021, Farsight Security, Vixie's fifth start-up, was acquired by Domain Tools, and Vixie transitioned from CEO into the role of Strategic Advisor to Tim Chen, CEO of DomainTools. He remains a director at SIE Europe U.G. and a technical advisor to Fuxi Institute.

Internet Evangelism

In December 2011, Paul Vixie signed onto an open letter to the U.S. Congress sent by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that urged the legislature not to pass SOPA bills, which he and the 82 other signees believed would seriously hinder the future of the Internet, U.S. legitimacy with regards to Internet stewardship, and many industries tied together through the Internet, among other deleterious effects.

Publications & Patents

Along with Frederick Avolio, he co-wrote the famous book Sendmail: Theory and Practice. He contributed to a chapter in the book Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen RFCs, mostly on DNS and related topics. He jokingly noted in 2002 that he was the record-holder for "most CERT advisories due to a single author." He is also a frequent contributor at Circle ID.

Vixie is a named inventor on three patents, as well as two patent applications. Most recently, in his work at Farsight Security, he applied for patents related to network security and encryption.

Memberships

Paul is a member of the SSAC, RSSAC, DNSSEC, ARIN and a frequent participant in IETF and NANOG.

Education

• PhD Computer Science, Keio University, 2011

Video

Paul Vixie at the 2014 Internet Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

ICANN76 Playing Card Illustration

Paul is dressed as a warlock in greens with raven skulls around his neck (because he likes birds of prey). The character he identifies with, Adam Warlock, was the keeper of the Soul Stone, which controlled life and death, so the soul stone is hovering above his hand and the raven skulls represent his power over life and death as well.