Steve Bellovin

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3.3K Posts
I'm an affiliate scholar at Georgetown's Institute for Technology Law and Policy, and a computer science professor emeritus and former affiliate law prof at Columbia University. Author of "Thinking Security". Dinosaur photographer. Not ashamed to say that I’m still masking, because long Covid terrifies me.
Home Pagehttps://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb/
PronounsHe/Him
Photography-only account@urbandinosaurs
LicenseAll of my photos available via a Creative Commons BY-NC license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Some hero renamed the White House on Google Maps as Epstein Island. Bless you, whoever you are.
Post reporters called the White House. Their phones showed ‘Epstein Island.’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2026/03/27/white-house-google-database-epstein/
Post reporters called the White House. Their phones showed ‘Epstein Island.’

Washington Post journalists who called the White House switchboard using Google Pixel Android phones saw “Epstein Island” on their screens Thursday.

The Washington Post
This was during a cabinet meeting. The man is senile at best…
That hackers got into Patel’s gmail account suggests one of two possibilities: his device or devices were hacked, or his password was phished and he doesn’t use good 2FA.

Excited to be co-chairing RAID 2026 (https://raid2026.org) alongside Tiffany Bao this year!

Looking for a security venue to submit your research? The deadline is just around the corner—April 16, 2026.

CFP: https://raid2026.org/call.html

Looking forward to seeing you in Lancaster this October (11–14)!

RAID 2026 – The 29th International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions and Defenses

When the Supreme Court let a president get away with redefining birthright citizenship

www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/when-the-supreme-court-let-a-president-get-away-with-redefining-birthright-citizenship

The president finds the long-settled meaning of the citizenship clause to be an intolerable obstacle to his agenda. The reason? Each year it would make U.S. citizens of tens of […] The post When the Supreme Court let a president get away with redefining…

When the Supreme Court let a president get away with redefining birthright citizenship

The president finds the long-settled meaning of the citizenship clause to be an intolerable obstacle to his agenda. The reason? Each year it would make U.S. citizens of tens of […]

SCOTUSblog
Re https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/us/politics/trump-tsa-agents-shutdown.html : From Article I, §9 of the Constitution: "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law, and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time."
I guess that the One Big Beautiful Bill [sic] made provision for tonnage and poundage, and no one ever noticed. Or maybe it's from one of the slush funds created by extorting money from companies.
Trump Says He Will Sign Order to Pay T.S.A. Agents as Travel Frustrations Grow

President Trump said he would sign an emergency order to pay Transportation Security Administration agents, with an intensifying crisis at airports ahead of a busy travel weekend.

The New York Times
Texas Republican officials know what the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has to say about religious liberty. "They have simply decided it does not apply to Muslims." [@stevechapman.bsky.social @[email protected]]

Texas Republicans Are Moving F...
Texas Republicans Are Moving From Demonizing Muslims to Stripping Away Their Rights

The ugly logic of bigotry is on vivid display in the Lone Star State

The UnPopulist

How annoyed are judges about getting filings with hallucinated citations? They are using ChatGPT to write limericks mocking the filers 🤖😵

https://flcourts-media.flcourts.gov/content/download/2486572/opinion/Opinion_2025-0843.pdf

A question for Real Lawyers on the circuit split on the border search exception for digital device searches (https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/cbp-border-phone-searches-face-patchwork-of-rules-for-returning-u-s-citizens/): what circuit’s rules control what can be done in a border search outside the physical boundaries of the country, e.g., at a Canadian airport?
CBP Border Phone Searches Face Patchwork of Rules for Returning U.S. Citizens - FindLaw

Can CBP search your phone and social media at the border? Learn how the border search exception works, and why your rights change depending where you cross.

FindLaw Blogs
“for the United States this war was an unwise gamble on extremely long odds; the gamble (that the regime would collapse swiftly) has already failed and as a result locked in essentially nothing but negative outcomes. Even with the regime were to collapse in the coming weeks or suddenly sue for peace, every likely outcome leaves the United States in a meaningfully worse strategic position than when it started.”
https://acoup.blog/2026/03/25/miscellanea-the-war-in-iran/
Miscellanea: The War in Iran

This post is a set of my observations on the current war in Iran and my thoughts on the broader strategic implications. I am not, of course, an expert on the region nor do I have access to any spec…

A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry