Ahto Buldas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ahto Buldas
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Ahto Buldas, Tallinn, May 2013
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| Born | 17 January 1967 |
| Nationality | Estonian |
| Alma mater | Tallinn University of Technology |
| Known for | Keyless Signature Infrastructure Server-based signatures Linked Timestamping |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | Tallinn University of Technology and University of Tartu |
Ahto Buldas (born January 17, 1967) is a brilliant computer scientist from Estonia. He is known for inventing something very important called Keyless Signature Infrastructure. This invention helps keep digital information and signatures super safe online. He also helped start a company called Guardtime and is the head of the OpenKSI foundation.
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Early Life and Studies
Ahto Buldas was born in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. After finishing high school, he went to Tallinn University of Technology. He worked hard and earned his master's degree in 1993. Later, in 1999, he completed his PhD there. Today, he lives in Tallinn with his wife and their four children.
Making Digital Information Secure
From 1996 to 2002, Ahto Buldas played a big part in creating Estonia's Digital Signature Act. He also helped with the ID-card system. This system lets people in Estonia use digital signatures that are legally binding. It was one of the first systems like this to be used widely by a whole country.
He started researching how to "timestamp" digital information in 1998. This means creating a secure record of when a digital document was created or changed. He has written many papers about this topic.
His experience with Estonia's ID-card system led him to invent Keyless Signature Infrastructure (KSI). This is a special system for digital signatures and timestamps. It uses a type of math called "hash-functions" to keep data safe. This makes it very secure, even against new types of computer attacks.
Because of his amazing invention, the company Guardtime was started in 2006. This company uses KSI technology to protect important digital information for many organizations.
Helping Students and Research
Ahto Buldas is also a professor at Tallinn University of Technology. He is the Chair of Information Security there. He enjoys guiding students and has helped 15 students get their master's degrees. He has also supervised 4 students who earned their PhDs.
Awards and Recognition
Ahto Buldas has received several important awards for his work:
- In 2002, he won the Young Scientist Award from the Cultural Foundation of the President of Estonia.
- In 2015, he was given the Order of the White Star, IV class. This is a high honor from the President of Estonia.
