John S. (Jack) Edwards’ experience in the telecommunications field includes design, analysis, and business planning. He successfully created several design groups and founded four companies, one of which is now a billion dollar subsidiary of a large corporation. He held senior level management positions at small and large companies.

He began his career at Bell Labs, where he was engaged in the design of the central processing unit (CPU) for the #2ESS switching system. He was with Nortel for several years, and retired in 1993. He is currently active in private consultancy as the President of Digicom, Incorporated.

At Digicom, he has worked in the telecommunications security field. He studied the security of the SS7 networks as they relate to the area of number portability and its relationship to the competition envisioned by the Telecommunications Regulation Act of 1996. The application of encryption and its export has been a topic of consideration as well. He has participated in three government advisory committees:

• The Industry Executive Subcommittee (IES) of the National Security Technical Advisory Committee (NSTAC), under the direction of Nortel’s NSTAC principal. (NSTAC is a Presidential Federal Advisory Committee of senior executives rendering telecommunications security related advice to the President.) He has chaired several task forces for the IES.
• The Department of Commerce Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee, which advises on export control issues.
• The Technical Advisory Committee to Develop a Federal Information Processing Standard for Key Management Infrastructure (TACDFIPSKMI).

He has also studied the vulnerabilities of telecommunications networks and their behavior under stress; developed a taxonomy of vulnerabilities in telecommunications systems; and modeled vulnerabilities of a classic digital central office and characterized their consequences upon failure, including a deeper analysis of a typical line card. He serves as the Vice Chair of the Information Systems Technical Working Group in support of the Military Critical Technology List (MCTL). In addition, he has participated in a telecommunications vulnerability report, and a study of the effects of chemical attacks upon a large US city.

Edwards has also designed an architecture and call processing plan for a wireless local loop system intended for the export market, and created a business plan and founded a telecommunications company to develop new wireless voice and data telecommunications equipment for sale to third-world countries.

Edwards is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a longtime member of the ACM.He has been a reviewer for Computing Reviews since 1967.