Dear Readers,
We note that Thursday Dec. 2 was the last date for submitting papers for Security and Privacy 2022. The conference will be held May 22-26, and Euro S&P will be held June 6-10 with Genoa, Italy as the host city. More and more security conferences, and indeed, events of all kinds, are "going hybrid" with in-person and remote participation options. The picture for spring events is not clear yet, vaccinations and boosters notwithstanding, but opportunities for publication are plentiful.
Quantum computation seems to garner more and more attention. If hope were progress, then we would have quantum computation at our fingertips. Meanwhile, classical computation shows itself to be no laggard, and supercomputers (40M+ cores!) will continue to hold quantum at bay for at least the near-term future.
Given the constant stream of reports of hacks that reveal and steal personal information and the incessant consolidation of personal information garnered from social media and ecommerce sites, why is it that we assume that we have any privacy at all? Surely everything useful about everyone in the US and Europe has been gleaned by now. What is left to protect, I wonder?
Streaming from the Woods on a Snowy Evening,
Whose woods are these, I think I know,
His house is on my map app now.
He will not mind me stopping here,
To capture snow with video.
My ipad app must think it queer
To stop without a network near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The wifi weak on chilly gear.
The cellphone hums and starts to shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the beep
Of app alerts and one snowflake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have messages aheap,
Gigabytes to read before I sleep,
Gigabytes to read before I sleep.
(Heartfelt apologies to Robert Frost)