This summer issue of Cipher comes in the midst of the summer doldrums, a time of few conference announcements and few conference reports, with several good conferences coming up. We have two especially interesting announcements, one for a CRA conference on Grand Challenges in Information Security and Assurance, and one for an NSF Cyber Trust research conference.

Those of you who are conference organizers, please remember, as you plan your next events, to send a note to cipher-cfp @ ieee-security.org with either a text version of the announcement, or a pointer to a text version.

The US federal agencies have been in the news lately, with DARPA taking hits on several counts. Refreshingly, Carl Landwehr has news of the initiatives underway at NSF, which continues to fund top-quality security research, even though others along Fairfax Avenue are retreating into classified projects.

Robert Bruen has three book reviews, underscoring the continued growth of the security area and interest in it. If you would like to contribute a review please contact him at cipher-bookrev @ ieee-security.org

Jon Millen has a review of the recent Computer Security Foundations Workshop, the second of two yearly conferences sponsored by the IEEE Technical Committee on Security and Privacy. This small event continues to turn out excellent work, out of proportion to its size.

News snippets, readers guide material, and conference reports are welcome at all times. Please send material to cipher @ ieee-security.org Cipher is not interested at this time in accepting advertising or increasing its hit count or body part sizes.

As always, thanks to our colleagues, old and new, who contribute to Cipher!