This is the COVID-19 issue; it is abbreviated from our usual style because computer security has taken a backseat to life and death threat from the pandemic. Though computer viruses have long taken a toll on businesses and individuals, a real, biologic virus has turned out to be more expensive.

Academic conferences are hard-hit by the travel restrictions and limits on large gatherings. Please check the conference websites before making travel plans.

The IEEE Computer Society's Security and Privacy Symposium and Workshops will be virtual, online events at their scheduled dates during the week May 18-21, 2020. The symposium papers are now online in the Computer Society's Digital Libary.

Help cheer up computer security researchers by voting for the "Best Paper of 2019" award!

News, Commentary, and Opinion

• News items:

  • Cyber-Attack Hits U.S. Health Agency Amid Covid-19 Outbreak
    Bloomberg
    By Shira Stein and Jennifer Jacobs
    March 16, 2020
    Summary:
    As if the reality of a pandemic were not enough bad news, some attempts to keep the public informed have suffered a denial of service attack.

  • Official Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC) Oversight Board Annual Report 2019
    A report to the National Security Adviser of the United Kingdom March 2019
    Summary: This report largely concerns an investigation of Huawei's software engineering processes. Notable are two summary items:

    v. Further significant technical issues have been identified in Huawei's engineering processes, leading to new risks in the UK telecommunications networks;
    v. No material progress has been made by Huawei in the remediation of the issues reported last year, making it inappropriate to change the level of assurance from last year or to make any comment on potential future levels of assurance.

  Announcements and correspondence from readers (please contribute!)

• Book reviews from past Cipher issues

• Conference Reports and Commentary from past Cipher issues

• News items from past Cipher issues

Listing of academic positions available  by Cynthia Irvine
(no new postings)

The complete lists for Cipher calls-for-papers and calendar
  Cipher calendar announcements are on Twitter; follow "ciphernews"
Requests for inclusion in the list should sent per instructions.
  The following are new calls or announcements added since Cipher E154