Learning from Authoritative Security Experiment Results (LASER)
2016 Call for Papers

The LASER workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) and the Applied Computer Security Associates (ACSA).

LASER 2016 will be held as an IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
Workshop (SPW 2016), co-located with the 37th IEEE Symposium on
Security and Privacy ("Oakland").

Workshop date: Thursday, May 26, 2016, San Jose, CA, USA.

Workshop Goals

Each year, the Learning from Authoritative Security Experiment Results
(LASER) workshop focuses on some aspect of experimentation in computer
security. The 2016 workshop focus is on methodologies for computer
security experimentation that can provide insight that might help to
catalyze a new generation of useful, experimental computer security
research. Central to this will be new approaches to experimentation
that are repeatable and can be shared across communities.  It should
be noted that this call for research into the computer security
experimentation is different from the current fundamental research
into the "science of cybersecurity," though they are certainly
complementary in their eventual goals. Along with establishing a field
of research into useful evidence derived from computer security
experiments, substantial new approaches to sharing are needed in order
to enable scalable, cross- disciplinary experiments.

LASER 2016 seeks research papers that focus on computer security
experimentation methods and results and that demonstrate approaches to
increasing the repeatability and archiving of experiments, methods,
results, and data so that they can teach valuable lessons to the
computer security research community regarding conducting security
experiments and ultimately serve to foster a dramatic change in the
paradigm of computer security research and experimentation.  One
aspect of experimental research is the potential for unexpected
results or even failed experiments. Early LASER workshops focused on
both the need for sound science and on studying these unexpected or
negative results. LASER 2016 returns to this idea while examining the
experimental approaches employed and seeking new research into
defining and standardizing scientifically based experimental methods.
Thus, papers discussing either positive or negative results from
well-executed experiments are welcomed and encouraged. This includes
both research that is considered "successful," as well as research
that was unsuccessful, either because of a so-called "negative result"
or perhaps because of some sort of unexpected issue arising in the
experimental approach. This doesn't mean "bad" research -- it means
research that had a valid hypothesis and well-reasoned methods that
others can learn from.


Submissions

Workshop Papers of greatest interest to LASER 2016 will focus on
meaningful topics in computer security, include a well-reasoned
hypothesis, well-defined method for testing that hypothesis, and
understandable results, regardless of whether they support the
hypothesis or not. LASER 2016 welcomes papers describing methodologies
whose results are presented in other venues (conferences, journals)
but for LASER focuses on the methods and lessons learned. We stress
that the methodology and approaches to making experimentation
repeatable and transferrable as well as learning what parts of the
methodology worked as expected, did not work as expected, and/or were
surprising -- are of substantially higher importance than the specific
technical outcome of the experimental research itself. Papers should
document the methodology sufficiently so that others can theoretically
follow the same path.

Paper Format

Position papers and research submissions can be 6-10 pages long
including tables, figures, and references. Short papers of up 3-6
pages long are also welcome. Papers should be submitted via EasyChair
(https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=laser2016).  Submissions must
be in PDF format using USENIX conference paper formatting guidelines
(https://www.usenix.org/templates-conference-papers).  Papers in
either category are requested to include a structured abstract of
roughly 200- 500 words in length in total. They should contain concise
statements, presented in a consistent structure to help quickly
facilitate an understanding of the study. Essential elements of
structured abstracts are: background, aim, method, results, and
conclusions:

. Background. State the background and context of the work described in the
   paper.
. Aim. State the research question, objective, or purpose of the work
  in the paper.
. Method. Briefly summarize the method used to conduct the research, including
   subjects, procedures, data, and analytical methods.
. Results. State the outcome of the research using measures appropriate for the
   study conducted.
. Conclusions. State the surprises, lessons learned as a result of the
   study, and recommendations for future work.

Workshop Format

Because of the complex and open nature of the experimental methods,
LASER is designed to be a workshop in the traditional
sense. Presentations are expected to be interactive with the
expectation that a substantial amount of this time may be given to
questions and audience discussion, rather than pure
presentation. Papers and presentations should be conducive to
discussion, and the audience is encouraged to participate. To promote
a high level of interaction, attendance is limited. First preference
is given to participating authors. Additional seats are available on a
first-come first- served basis.  Additionally, a pre-workshop version
of the paper will be distributed to attendees.  However, authors are
encouraged to incorporate comments from the discussions at the
workshop into final, camera-ready versions of their paper, to be
published publicly by USENIX. Camera-ready paper versions are not due
until approximately one month after the workshop.

Student Scholarships

LASER also seeks to foster learning in experimental methods for the
next generation of computer security researchers. As such, LASER
offers a limited number of student scholarships for participation.

Important Dates
Paper Submissions Due: January 29, 2016 (Firm date: there will be NO Extensions)
Paper Decisions to Authors: February 29, 2016
Pre-Workshop Version of Papers Due: May 20, 2016
Workshop: May 26, 2016
Final, Publication-Ready Papers Due: June 30, 2016

Program Committee

Matt Bishop (University of California, Davis)
Rainer Böhme (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
Jed Crandall (University of New Mexico)
Serge Egelman (University of California, Berkeley & International
  Computer Science Institute)
Adrienne Porter Felt (Google)
Cormac Herley (Microsoft Research)
Chris Kanich (University of Illinois, Chicago)
David Manz (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Damon McCoy (New York University)
Daniela Oliveira (University of Florida)
Alina Oprea (RSA Laboratories)
Vern Paxson (University of California, Berkeley & International Computer Science
Institute)
Kami Vaniea (University of Edinburgh)
Robert Watson (Cambridge University)
Program chair: Sean Peisert (UC Davis, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)

Additional Information

See the LASER 2016 web site, http://2016.laser-workshop.org
See the IEEE SPW 2016 web site,
http://www.ieee-security.org/TC/SP2016/workshops.html