Those of you looking forward to Richard Austin's book review this month will be temporarily disappointed. He is tending to his health and will return for the next Cipher issue in May. We wish him a speedy recovery.
We have an extensive review of the annual sunny Financial Cryptography conference. The Carribbean setting seems to attract variety and quality, and Cipher's Associate Editor Sven Dietrich reports that it was its usual technical and social success.
We have several news articles for this issue, three concerning an expanding role that the US government is seeking in cybersecurity. Allegedly having overrun the power grid on the eastern seaboard, NSA is locating a major data center in Utah; the Federal administration is seeking legislation to give it authority over cybersecurity for some private firms; offensive cyberware is getting increased focus.
The annual IEEE Security and Privacy Symposium has announced its program for the May 20-23 meeting in San Francisco, and participants can make hotel arrangements and pay for conference registration now. But wait, that's not all! This year there will be 5 workshops following the conference. The Security and Privacy Workshops event will be on May 24-25, at the same location, and has these great venues for papers and panels: