The deadline for submissions to the CRA Grand Challenges Conference in
Information Security is fast approaching. Note that invitations to
attend are only extended based submissions.
I've enclosed the CFP below. Please consider a submission!
Visionaries Needed
CRA Conference on "Grand Research Challenges in Information Security &
Assurance"
Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia
November 16-19, 2003
Computing and IT technologies have become pervasive. This same
infrastructure is growing more complex as the underlying computational and
communication resources grow in speed and capacity. Every vision of future
technology includes predictions of ubiquitous computing and networking,
including embedded, portable, and distributed systems in every aspect of
our infrastructure. Computing will continue to change the way we do
business, interact with government, entertain ourselves, communicate, keep
records, control our infrastructures and services, execute law enforcement
and national defense, and conduct research and education.
Coupled with these changes, we face threats of massive disruption and
denial, loss of privacy, alteration of critical information, and new forms
of undesirable IT-based activity. Threats from criminals, anarchists and
extremists, random hackers, and cyberterrorists (among others) continue to
grow even as we put more reliance on our computing infrastructure. Yet
most of the money, attention, and energy in information security and
information assurance has been focused on incremental patches and updates
to existing systems rather than on seeking fundamental advances.
In 2002, the Computing Research Association sponsored its first "Grand
Research Challenges in Computer Science and Engineering." This was the
first in a series of highly non-traditional conferences where the goal is
to define important questions rather than expose current research. Grand
Challenges meetings seek "out-of-the-box" thinking to expose some of the
exciting, deep challenges yet to be met in computing research. Because of
the clear importance and pressing needs in information security and
assurance, the Computing Research Association's second "Grand Research
Challenges Conference" will be devoted to defining technical and social
challenges in information security and assurance.
We are seeking scientists, educators, business people, futurists, and
others who have some vision and understanding of the big challenges (and
accompanying advances) that should shape the research agenda in this field
over the next few decades. These meetings are not structured as
traditional conferences with scheduled presentations, but rather as highly
participatory meetings exposing important themes and ideas. As such, this
is not a conference for security specialists alone: We seek to convene a
diverse group from a variety of fields and at all career stages?we seek
insight and vision wherever it may reside.
Attendance is limited to 50 people and is by invitation only. If you are
interested in attending, please submit a two-page (or less) statement of
two or three examples of a "grand research challenge" problem in the IS/IA
area to <grcpapers@xxxxxxx> by September 17, 2003. The organizing
committee will invite prospective attendees based on these submissions.
Note that individuals invited must commit to attending for the entire
three-day conference (beginning Sunday at 6 pm, ending after lunch on
Wednesday.)
Please submit your paper as an attachment in plain text (no PDF or Word
documents!) Include a brief biographical statement sketching your
background at the end (maximum one page).
At the top of the first page, please provide the following information:
Name
Affiliation
Street Address
Room No.
City, State, Zip Code
E-mail
Telephone No.
The conference will be held in the executive retreat environment of Airlie
House in Warrenton, Virginia (30 miles from Washington-Dulles airport). In
addition to the formal sessions, two afternoons will be set aside for free
time so that participants may continue discussion in small, informal groups.
CRA has applied to the National Science Foundation for travel and lodging
support to cover expenses of some participants, where necessary. When you
submit your paper, please indicate whether you need to be considered for
travel and/or lodging support. We have explicitly budgeted for some
participants from outside the United States, and we encourage submissions
from around the world.
More information on the CRA Grand Challenges Conferences may be found on
the WWW at <http://www.cra.org/grand.challenges/>
Organizing Committee:
Eugene H. Spafford, Purdue University and Computing Research Association
(Organizing Committee Chair)
Richard A. DeMillo, Georgia Institute of Technology
(Organizing Committee Co-Chair)
David Aucsmith, Microsoft Corporation
Andrew Bernat, Computing Research Association
Steve Crocker, Shinkuro, Inc.
David Farber, Carnegie Mellon University
Virgil Gligor, University of Maryland
Sy Goodman, Georgia Institute of Technology
Anita Jones, University of Virginia
Susan Landau, Sun Laboratories
Peter Neumann, SRI
David Patterson, University of California, Berkeley
Fred Schneider, Cornell University
Douglas Tygar, University of California, Berkeley
William Wulf, National Academy of Engineering and University of Virginia