CFP: IEEE S&P - Cyber Conflict

IEEE SECURITY & PRIVACY CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue on Cyber Conflict
(Sept./Oct. 2011 issue)

Deadline for abstract submissions: 15 June 2010
Full papers due: 1 October 2010

Guest editors:
Thomas A. Berson (Anagram Laboratories)
Dorothy E. Denning (Naval Postgraduate School)

In 2007, Estonia was the target of massive denial-of-service attacks over the controversial relocation of a Soviet-era war memorial. Although the attacks leveraged botnets scattered all over the world, they were believed to originate in Russia or with persons of Russian descent. The following year, Georgia was the victim of similar attacks in conjunction with a ground confrontation with Russia. Meanwhile, large-scale cyber espionage operations into US military networks, computers belonging to the Dalai Lama and the government of India, critical infrastructures, major companies including Google, and various other targets have been traced back to China.

These incidents offer a glimpse into a future where cyberspace plays a key role in conflicts involving either or both nation-states and non-state actors. Over a hundred countries are reportedly developing capabilities for cyber espionage and cyber attack – capabilities that many individual hackers, criminals, and spies already possess and freely use.

These developments have raised numerous questions, including: What constitutes an act of war in cyberspace? How does the law of armed conflict apply to cyber attacks? Do we need international treaties governing cyber conflict? Can cyber attacks be deterred or pre-empted? Can we detect and analyze cyber attacks with sufficient speed and certainty as to limit their damages and determine attribution? Should states be responsible for attacks conducted by their citizens or using computers in their territory? What are the security implications of cyber conflict? What are the privacy implications?

IEEE Security & Privacy magazine seeks papers on all aspects of cyber conflict, including technology, policy, legal, ethical, operational, and strategic issues, especially as they relate to security and privacy. Papers can provide a broad overview or more in-depth coverage of a specific topic, country, or case study.

Authors should submit abstracts of 100-500 words as plain text or a .pdf file to dedennin@nps.edu by June 15. Authors whose abstracts fall within the scope of the issue will then be invited to submit full papers to the journal for peer-review. Papers will be due October 1 and should not exceed 6,000 words. The writing should be down-to-earth, practical, and original. Articles that are accepted for publication will be professionally copyedited according to the IEEE Computer Society style guide.

Visit www.computer.org/portal/pages/security /author.xml for information about the magazine, including article guidelines.