You probably know by now that the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy ("the TC" or "TCSP") is the body which sponsors our conferences, publishes our newsletter, pursues our standards activities, and develops our educational programs.
This has been a busy season for TCSP. Here are some highlights:
Gary Gronke of Intel represented us at the IEEE Computer Society meeting in Portland, Oregon. He, and we, stayed out of trouble by not taking any action items. My thanks to Gary, and to our Standards Chair, David Aucsmith, also of Intel, for flying the TC flag in Portland.
The Program Committee for the Symposium on Security and Privacy met and chose a stellar program from among the many papers submitted. Competition was fierce. My thanks to all the authors who submitted work. It is your efforts that make Oakland the premier conference in its field. Thanks also to the Program Chairs, Mike Reiter of Bell Labs and Roger Needham of Microsoft Research, and to all the members of the Program Committee for your hard and difficult work. There is still time to send your proposal for a five-minute talk at Oakland.
The Program Committee for the Computer Security Foundations Workshop will be meeting real soon now. The Foundations deadline is 31 January 2000. Send your paper.
I am sad to report that Paul Syverson of the Naval Research Laboratory has decided to hang up his green eye shade after two years of serving us as the Editor of Cipher. This will be the last issue he edits. During Paul's tenure as Editor several other societies, including IACR, have used Cipher as a model of how an online newsletter ought to be done. It is mainly Cipher that keeps us together as a community during the long cold months between conferences. So, I tip my hat to Paul and add my thanks to the thanks he deserves from all his readers.
Paul did not leave us in the lurch; he recruited his replacement. (What a guy!) I am happy to report that Jim Davis of Iowa State University has agreed to serve as Editor of Cipher starting with the next issue. Jim is an educator. You are already familiar with his work as he has been organizing the Calls for Papers section of Cipher. Welcome Jim.
That's it for now. Feel free to email of phone to let me know what's on your mind about the TC.
Best,
Tom Berson
Chair
IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy
(and that's a mouthful)