Technical Committee on Security and Privacy Annual Meeting May 2007 Unofficial Minutes

Technical Committee on Security and Privacy Annual Meeting Minutes
(Unofficial Version)
21 May 2007

Jon Millen called the meeting to order at 5:45pm.

Symposium Reports

The registration chair, Yong Guan, presented the registration information for the last several years:

Registrations by Category and Year

2007 2006 2005 2004 2003

Early

IEEE members 88 67 47 64 42

Non-members 53 45 35 40 34

Students 53 57 55 44 37

Late

IEEE members 22 28 21 19 34

Non-members 12 27 19 14 27

Students 20 28 19 20 21

Totals 248 252 196 201 195

Workshop

Early

IEEE members 21

Non-members 14

Late

IEEE members 2

Non-members 3

Total 40

Guan noted that in 2007 a lot more people registered on/before April 23 (early registration deadline): 194, 77% 169 (2006) 137 (2005)

Another notable fact is that we have 80-140 new attendees each year compared to that in previous years (2003-2007).

Terry Benzel reported on the finances of the Security and Privacy Symposium. Donations from Microsoft Research and the National Science Foundation helped fund several student travel grants. The surplus was less than in recent years due to several factors, including a larger number of registrants with IEEE membership and a larger number of early registrants taking advantage of the lower fees.

Election of next TC Vice Chair (Jon Millen; TC nomination is Hilarie Orman)

Hilarie Orman was nominated by the TC and elected by what appeared to be a unanimous vote.

Computer Society Issues (Cynthia Irivine)

IEEE Computer Society report

C. Irvine attended the IEEE OpCOM/TAB meeting in Los Angeles on 15 May. It is clear that the Computer Society is losing money. This is a result of the relationship the IEEE has with its societies. Because of its size, the Computer Society provides substantial income to the IEEE, however its funding allocation from the IEEE is insufficient to cover expenses.

A discussion regarding the cost to the TC on S&P of its association with the Computer Society ensued. It was pointed out that a major benefit of the affiliation was the use of the IEEE name, which for academics is quite important, and the insurance available for conferences.

It was noted that the charges for conferences will change on 1 June. A study by another TC indicates that small conferences may incur deficit spending, while large conferences will profit. The S&P Symposium is likely to see little change.

There was a discussion initiated by Carl Landwehr, regarding cooperation with the IEEE Security and Privacy magazine, of which he is an associate editor in chief. It was suggested that a subscription option be included in the S&P registration. Hilarie Orman was charged with exploring the alternatives with Carl Landwehr and reporting to the TCSP through Cipher.
Task Force on Information Assurance
There was a discussion on the relationship of the Technical Committee with the Computer Society's Task Force on Information Assurance. As a result, Irvine was charged to engage the TF leadership in a discussion regarding merger.

Policy on duplicate submissions. (Patrick McDonald)

P. McDaniel noted that the number of duplicate submissions (viz., simultaneous submission of the same paper to different conferences with overlapping review periods) appears to be on the rise and is a both a burden to review committees and threat to fairness. The current policy is to reject duplicate submissions if they are detected, and the way this is usually detected is by the happenstance of an alert reviewer who also serves as a reviewer for another conference. It was suggested that statistics were needed before the TC could develop a new policy on eliminating duplicate submissions.

The 2009-2011 Claremont contract. (Deborah Shands)

D. Shands has been negotiating with the Claremont to develop a contract for the 2009-2011 conferences. The Claremont has given us a sequence of proposals, the last of which appears to be in the ballpark of what we want.

We have considered moving the conference to other locations. At the 2006 business meeting, we invited attendees with an interest in other locations to acquire a proposal from another hotel before the business meeting in 2007. We have received no proposals.

D. Shands enlisted the help of the IEEE Computer Society's contracting group to pursue the contract negotiations. Note that this is one of the services that IEEE Computer Society provides to conference organizers.

Student travel grants. (Patrick McDonald)

Several student travel grants were funded thanks to the generosity of several sponsors, including the National Science Foundation, Microsoft Research, and the Technical Committee. These were a big success and the TC hopes to have at least this number for the 2008 meeting.

Options for new committee for S&P positions:

separate publications/CD chair
separate fund-raising chair
others?

And a plea for volunteers. Contact the 2008 General Chair (Yong Guan)

Next year's S&P organizing committee

General Chair: Yong Guan
Registration and Publicity Chair: David Du
Treasurer/finance chair: David Shambroom
Program Committee Chair: Patrick McDonald
Program Committee Chair: Avi Rubin

Technical Committee positions:

General Chair Emeritus: Deborah Shands (automatic)
Technical Committee Treasurer: TBD

Cipher editor, webmaster: Currently both positions are held by Hilarie Orman; replacements will be considered, apply to the Technical Committee through Jon Millen.

	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
Early
IEEE members	88	67	47	64	42
Non-members	53	45	35	40	34
Students	53	57	55	44	37
Late
IEEE members	22	28	21	19	34
Non-members	12	27	19	14	27
Students	20	28	19	20	21
Totals	248	252	196	201	195
Workshop
Early
IEEE members	21
Non-members	14
Late
IEEE members	2
Non-members	3
Total	40