This is KPBS Midday Edition , I am Maureen CavanaughHackers steal information all the time. Savage is a computer science professor. He studies the way hackers can take control of your car. This week he was a MacArthur feller. That comes with a price. He spoke with midday edition Michael Lipton.When people hear about the hack, we are horrified. What goes through your head when you read about something like the Equifax hack?I think I'm horrified as well. Additionally, I spend time thinking about how it happened and who was behind it and why I go is there a professional curiosity?It is more than that. In order to do reasonable work in security you need to understand what changes are taking place on the side of the attacker. What drives that and what techniques are they using. --? You need to always play catch-up.You have combined cute -- computer science and social science. How do you go about trying to understand the criminal process when you are not a criminal? We get very close. We have students who have joined some of these organizations, or pretended to join. We spend a lot of time in these underground forms. Sometimes, the criminals have leaks. We have benefited from having breaches of their information. You can examine their communication and the HR problems that exist in criminal organizations. That we do experiments. Some work we have done looking at various kinds of counterfeit products. We will trace various resources that are required to allow me to buy something that is sent to me via spam or appears on Google. If there is a link, if they registered that domain, there needs to be a server that hold that data and another service -- server to help you find it. There needs to be someone who created the content and the delivery of the goods and customer service. We will map all of that out so that we can understand the structure. If we were doing this, this is how much it would cost. Through those kinds of experiences we can understand their business model.A lot of your work found that a pressure point where the banks processing the payments. If you removed their access to banking, they would no longer be successful at their business and they might move on to something else. Spam has not gone away since you have come out with that research. You have a sent that that work made a dent? One issue is that --One issue is that because you come up with a solution does not mean everyone will use it. There are challenges. Certain banks have been harder to target this way. The Bank of China has not been as responsive as some Western banks. There are issues that there are things that people do with spam that don't involve the direct sale of products. There are things that don't involve violating intellectual property laws. If I am selling an herbal product that claims to do male enhancement or grow your hair back, that is not infringing on anyone's brand. There is no one who has standing to go to Visa and MasterCard and say this bank is being used for something illegal. There is no one to play that role.One of your most famous papers was how hackers can take over car. Years later we are still talking about those vulnerabilities. Hackers could kill the engine of a Jeep on the highway. Have they been making progress?Huge progress. However, it does not happen at the same's deed everywhere. The work we did in 2010 is public that they were on GM vehicles. I have been impressed at how much progress GM has made on security. They have a huge team. They have done a lot. That does not mean there are no threat. There are still issues. There are still challenges that come from these the light chain being very complicated.You have talked about vulnerabilities everywhere. How worried should people be that all these things that we interact with on a daily basis could be impacted?It is in no one's interest to disrupt those things for personal gain. Expense to do that is high. However, as the expense goes down and as groups become emboldened and become more used to using cyber techniques, over time, the risk will go up that someone will do something in anger. I would say that the short term, I am not worried at all. Long-term, I think it is very important for us to focus on this. There is a systemic risk that is going to get worse over time.What happened when the MacArthur foundation told you you won this prize.They don't leave messages. They are sensitive about keeping information private. They kept calling me. I kept ignoring the phone call. After I got enough of these, I finally looked up the number online and found that it was at MacArthur, it was a program manager. I assumed they wanted to talk to me about the work we did on diesel engines. We had been looking at these issues with car companies that had five past -- bypassed regulatory oversights. We eventually talked. It was a pleasant surprise. It was not what I expect that at all.What will this funding allow you to do?I have no plan. People have their life planned out. I'm so not that person. However, the big impact it will have, I like to do a lot of work at the intersection of technology and public policy. I inc. the notoriety of the award makes it easier for me to reach certain people and meet certain people and have the opportunity to describe ideas and research results. More people will answer your call even if they don't recognize the numberPretty much.Savage is one of this year's MacArthur genius is.
UC San Diego computer science professor Stefan Savage is among the 24 2017 MacArthur Fellows announced Wednesday, with each slated to receive $625,000 over the next five years to allow them to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional objectives.
Savage uses an interdisciplinary approach to address challenges to computer security and to counter cybercrime, according to Cecilia Conrad, the managing director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.
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Savage has created new strategies for defending against malware and denial-of-service attacks from multiple sources. Together with colleagues, he was the first to demonstrate the ability to hack an automobile remotely, including taking over the engine and brakes.
Savage and his colleagues also recently discovered a way to thwart internet-based counterfeit drug rings.
The three criteria for selection of fellows are exceptional creativity, a track record of significant accomplishments, and the potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work, according to Cecilia Conrad, the managing director of the MacArthur Fellows Program.
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The MacArthur Fellows Program is intended to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional inclinations, Conrad said. The recipients may use their fellowship to advance their expertise, engage in new work, change fields or alter the direction of their careers, she said.
The fellowship is considered an investment in a person's originality, insight, and potential.
Fellows must be either residents or citizens of the United States, and must not hold elective office or advanced positions in government.
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"From transforming conditions for low-wage workers to identifying internet security vulnerabilities, from celebrating the African American string band tradition to designing resilient urban habitats, these new MacArthur Fellows bring their exceptional creativity to diverse people, places, and social challenges," Conrad said. "Their work gives us reason for optimism and inspires us all."
