Cipher Issue 120, May 27, 2014, Editor's Letter

Dear Readers,

Last week the Security and Privacy Symposia and its associated workshops gathered a record number of attendees in San Jose. The new location for the conference, the Fairmont Hotel, was spacious and comfortable, reminiscent of the "old days" at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley/Oakland.

As usual, the research papers were a gamut of excellent explorations of security from several viewpoints: attack, defense, analysis, new applications, and "systemization of knowledge". The award-winning papers covered "Frankencerts", multiparty computation using BitCoin, and a tour de force Linux exploitation including a real-time demonstration. The poster session and short talks provided attendees with a daylong immersion in cutting-edge thinking in computer security.

There were seven workshops on the days preceding the conference, and these continue to be a popular and effective way to explore new concepts in depth. Language security, for example, had its debut appearance with several papers and healthy attendance.

This month Richard Austin reviews a book that offers some answers about what to do with all the data accumulated through security monitoring. Big data is creating needle-in-a-haystack problems for all of us, and it's good to have some needle identifying software on the case.

We will be seeking more conference reports and news summaries for future issues of Cipher. If you attend a security event this summer, consider submitting a short write-up of the highlights to this editor.

"Can't wait to get back to San Jose" ,

      Hilarie Orman