Peter Tapling is the 2010 recipient of the School of Information Technology Distinguished Alumni Award. The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have demonstrated outstanding performance in their profession and have made outstanding contributions to the community, state, or nation. Mr. Tapling has also been selected to the CAST Hall of Fame.
Peter Tapling (B.S. Applied Computer Science, 1982) is president and CEO at Authentify, Inc., the leading provider of OOBA (out-of-band authentication) services; a position he has held since co-founding the company in 1999. Mr. Tapling has spent over 25 years in the software industry, mostly with start-up companies bringing new technologies onto the information technology landscape.
Mr. Tapling has been an active participant in information security industry standards committees dating back to the group that created the DoD Orange Book. Notably, he participated in the American Bar Association Digital Signature Committee, which developed the Digital Signature Guidelines document, and the IETF PKIX working group. He has provided a draft review of the digital signature legislation that was eventually approved by the State of Illinois.
Currently, Mr. Tapling serves on the NACHA Internet Council and participated in the development of the current he Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC) Security Working Group. He is a frequent speaker on the topics of authentication, risk management and identity theft and is a co-author of the recently released book “Mastering the Fraud Tsunami”.
Mr. Tapling is chairman of the Business and Industry Advisor Council for the School of Applied Computer Science and is on the board of advisors to the dean of the College of Applied Science and Technology at Illinois State University. Mr. Tapling serves on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Illinois Technology Association and is a board member for The Big Idea Forum. He is an active advisor to entrepreneurs and early stage companies.
