Rasool Jalili was born in 1961 in Eghlid, Fars Province, Iran. He graduated from Imam-Khomeini High-School (named 25 Shahrivar, before the revolution) in Eghlid. In the universities annual entrance exam in 1978, he was admitted to Ferdowsi University of Mashhad; where he received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1985. Later on, in 1986, he was admitted to Sharif University of Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, as a graduate student for the M.Sc. degree.

In 1995, Rasool joined the Department of Computer Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. He is now an associate professor, doing research in "computer and network security" areas including access control, vulnerability analysis, and database security in his network security laboratory /Center (NSC). Since September 2009, he has been visiting Department of Computer Science, University of California-Davis, as a visiting professor. He is the Editor-In-Chief of ISeCure, The ISC International Journal of Information Security.