Dear Readers,
Once a year the security research community has a chance to weigh in what research has been most influential by nominating a paper for NSA's award. Take a moment to look at our news section and read about the award process and how you can vote.
The academic security world will be able to meet and greet in person once again when the Security and Privacy conference is held in San Francisco, May 22-26 (COVID permitting). Registration for the event opens imminently, and hotel registration is already available through the conference website at ieee-security.org. The scope of the research as evidenced in the current list of accepted papers is mind-boggling: DoS vulnerabilities, crypto mining detection, rowhammer, phishing, taint analysis, ... there won't be a dull moment in this conference.
The Ukraine war was preceded by predictions of intense cyberwarfare, but little has emerged on this front except for some successes claimed by an NGO with respect to hacking Russian websites and perhaps interfering with TV broadcasts. We do not know the extent of cyberops in the military sphere, but given that this is a "modern" war, there must be automated systems and computer communication and real-time intelligence communication. What is the balance of smart to brutal in this conflict? Will lessons learned be the foundation for future hybrid warfare? What woes does this portend?
Besides the few articles about war, there are some interesting stories of current relevance for our news rundown, including a white paper from the US government's National Cyber Director about making computers and the Internet "absolutely safe" by developing processes similar to those of the FDA and NTSB. We also note some interesting discussions of how virtual currency loses some of its useful attributes when it comes up against the real world.
Pi Day happened recently, and it was a pleasant distraction from other stresses. I cannot see any reasonable tie-in to computer security, but others do. Pi Day is such a universal, modern, and inclusive holiday, how about having an entire Pi Week? Starting on Pi Day, (3.14), the Seven Pi Society proposes to extend Pi Day to the fifteenth (3.1415, the Ides), and then Pi+.02 Day (3/16, National Artichoke Day), and then we can encompass St. Pi-Tricks Day on the 17th (though we also favor just naming it after the Irish mathematician W. R. Hamilton). That's 4 days of Pi, so let's just keep going until the full Pi Week is concluded at sundown on 3.20, just before the equinox. We will also call this Pie Week for the mathematical gourmands of the world.
Happy Non-Algebraic Number Month,