Vipul Ved Prakash
Encyclopedia
Vipul Ved Prakash is a software engineer
and entrepreneur
, most widely known for creating Vipul's Razor
, a collaborative anti-spam system. In 2001, Vipul co-founded Cloudmark
, a company that
builds email security software for consumers, enterprises and ISPs based
on the collaborative filtration technology of Vipul's Razor.
. At the age of 13, he won the junior state championship and played on the national Table Tennis
circuit until he graduated from high school. Vipul attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi
for undergraduate studies in Mathematics
, Physics
and Computer Science
, but eventually dropped out to pursue his interests in software design. In the late-90s, Vipul co-founded, with Ashish Gulhati
, an Internet privacy
company (Sense/Net) for early Internet users in India and wrote extensively for computer magazines and industry journals, including a regular column, Net Zeppelin, on networking protocols for the Indian edition of the PC World Magazine
. In 2003, he was named to the MIT
Technology Review
TR100
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
and
has published a lot of his work under Open Source licenses. He
has written several popular extensions to the Perl
programming language, that include Crypt::RSA,
Crypt::Primes and
Net::XWhois. Vipul has a strong
interest in cryptography and considers himself a cypherpunk
.
He implemented the RSA cryptosystem in an export-friendly
form factor as Perl code in the shape of a dolphin
.
More recently, he published a design for an electronic voting
system dubbed
Athens
that uses cryptographic methods to provide proofs of
correctness.
In May, 2000, Vipul and Rishab A. Ghosh, published
the Orbiten Free Software Survey,
which is considered to be the first successful attempt at building a
comprehensive empirical model of contribution to Open Source projects.
The software and methodologies developed for the survey are now
widely used in Open Source research.
Software engineer
A software engineer is an engineer who applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems that make computers or anything containing software, such as computer chips, work.- Overview :...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, most widely known for creating Vipul's Razor
Vipul's Razor
Vipul's Razor is a checksum-based, distributed, collaborative, spam-detection-and-filtering network. Through user contribution, Razor establishes a distributed and constantly updating catalogue of spam in propagation that is consulted by email clients to filter out known spam. Detection is done...
, a collaborative anti-spam system. In 2001, Vipul co-founded Cloudmark
Cloudmark
Cloudmark, Inc is a privately held company, San Francisco-based, providing protection against spam, viruses, phishing, and similar threats that affect email....
, a company that
builds email security software for consumers, enterprises and ISPs based
on the collaborative filtration technology of Vipul's Razor.
Biography
Vipul grew up in New Delhi, India. A determined autodidact, he spent most of his teenage years outside classrooms, writing computer programs and playing competitive Table TennisTable tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
. At the age of 13, he won the junior state championship and played on the national Table Tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
circuit until he graduated from high school. Vipul attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi
St. Stephen's College, Delhi
St. Stephen's College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi located in Delhi, India. The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees under the purview of the University. Famous for its rich history and many traditions, St...
for undergraduate studies in Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, but eventually dropped out to pursue his interests in software design. In the late-90s, Vipul co-founded, with Ashish Gulhati
Ashish Gulhati
Ashish Gulhati is notable for being one of India's first online activists and open source hackers.-Open source:As one of India's original hackers, Ashish has worked to raise awareness about FOSS in India...
, an Internet privacy
Internet privacy
Internet privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, repurposing, providing to third-parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Privacy can entail both Personally Identifying Information or non-PII information such as a...
company (Sense/Net) for early Internet users in India and wrote extensively for computer magazines and industry journals, including a regular column, Net Zeppelin, on networking protocols for the Indian edition of the PC World Magazine
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
. In 2003, he was named to the MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Technology Review
Technology Review
Technology Review is a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as "The Technology Review", and was re-launched without the "The" in its name on April 23, 1998 under then publisher R. Bruce Journey...
TR100
TR35
The TR35 is an annual list published by MIT Technology Review magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35.Some of the most famous winners of the award include Larry Page and Sergey Brin , Linus Torvalds , Jerry Yang , Jonathan Ive , Mark Zuckerberg...
as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.
Open Source and Cryptography
Vipul is an ardent supporter of the free software movementFree software movement
The free software movement is a social and political movement with the goal of ensuring software users' four basic freedoms: the freedom to run their software, to study and change their software, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. The alternative terms "software libre", "open...
and
has published a lot of his work under Open Source licenses. He
has written several popular extensions to the Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
programming language, that include Crypt::RSA,
Crypt::Primes and
Net::XWhois. Vipul has a strong
interest in cryptography and considers himself a cypherpunk
Cypherpunk
A cypherpunk is an activist advocating widespread use of strong cryptography as a route to social and political change.Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks electronic mailing list, informal groups aimed to achieve privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography...
.
He implemented the RSA cryptosystem in an export-friendly
form factor as Perl code in the shape of a dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
.
More recently, he published a design for an electronic voting
system dubbed
Athens
that uses cryptographic methods to provide proofs of
correctness.
In May, 2000, Vipul and Rishab A. Ghosh, published
the Orbiten Free Software Survey,
which is considered to be the first successful attempt at building a
comprehensive empirical model of contribution to Open Source projects.
The software and methodologies developed for the survey are now
widely used in Open Source research.