Steven M. Bellovin
Percy K. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science
Steven M. Bellovin works on security, privacy, and related legal and public policy issues.
He has focused on the role of buggy code as a leading driver of insecurity, and on ways to use cryptography to protect personal data as well as ordinary network communications. These fields interact with governmental concerns, so he has worked with members of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and with the legal academy, to ensure that sound policies are adopted.
Of particular interest to Bellovin are solutions that are useful in the real world. In the 1990s, he worked on firewalls as the only scalable solution to widespread buggy code. He has worked on efficient encrypted search techniques, where the database operator can understand neither the contents of the database nor the queries, but can return the correct records. In the legal realm, he has used technical analyses to inform the debate over things like location-tracking and how the third party doctrine can or cannot be applied to the Internet.
Bellovin received a BA from Columbia University in 1972, and an MS (1977) and PhD (1982) in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was a member of the National Academies’ Computer Science and Telecommunications Board.
Research Areas
- Privacy
- Computer Security
- Related legal and privacy aspects
Additional Information
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Professional Experience
- Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 2014-
- Affiliate Faculty at Columbia Law School, 2018 -
- Technology Scholar, Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, 2016
- Chief Technologist, Federal Trade Commission, 2012-2013
- Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, 2005-2014
- Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, University of Pennsylvania, 2002-2004
- AT&T Fellow, AT&T Labs—Research, 1998-2004
- Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories and AT&T Labs
- Research, 1987-1998
- Member of the Technical Staff, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1982-1987
- Instructor, Dept. of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1977-1978
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Professional Affiliations
- Usenix
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Honors & Awards
- 2023 Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award (“The Flame”), along with Matt Blaze and Susan Landau, for “profound and lasting impact on Computer Science, Com- puter Security, Law, and Public Policy through their groundbreaking research, their influential publications, and their dedication to advancing knowledge that informs public policy.”
- 2019 “Test of Time”award for Bellovin and Merritt, “Encrypted key exchange:Password- based protocols secure against dictionary attacks”
- 2016 ESORICS Outstanding Research Award
- 2016 EFF Pioneer Award (co-winner with the other authors of the “Keys Under Doormats paper)
- 2015 J.D. Falk Award (co-winner with the other authors of the “Keys Under Doormats” paper)
- 2014 Elected to the Cybersecurity Hall of Fame
- 2006 Received the 2007 NIST/NSA National Computer Systems Security Award
- 2001 Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
- 1998 AT&T Fellow
- 1995 Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award (“The Flame”), along with Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis, for creating Usenet
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Education
- PhD, Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- MS, Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- BA, Interdisciplinary between Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Columbia University