Editor's Letter, Cipher Issue E59, March 15, 2004


The big event of the spring for security researchers, is the upcoming Security and Privacy Symposium, held at the Claremont Resort in Berkeley, California. The preliminary program and registration information are now available, as described in this Cipher issue.

Robert Bruen again has created three interesting book reviews, two about the technology of hacking and one about INFOSEC security assessment.

Several people have contributed news items for this issue, and they have my thanks. I've included a letter from the FreeS/WAN foundation about their project's end; FreeS/WAN's goal of providing easily usable data privacy for Internet connections has met with mixed success.

Cipher has many subscribers in Spain, and I extend sympathy to them in dealing with the effects of the recent terroristic attacks in their country.

There are many good conferences coming up, and I encourage those of you who attend them to write a review for Cipher. We all benefit from news about current research results, and Cipher is an inexpensive way to reach people around the world.

Ever seeking information security,
       Hilarie Orman
       Cipher Editor
       cipher-editor @ ieee-security.org