The 4th Workshop on Recurring Malcode (WORM), 2006.

Internet-wide infectious epidemics have emerged as one of the leading
threats to information security and service availability. Self-
propagating threats, generally termed 'worms', exploit software
weaknesses, hardware limitations, Internet topology, and the open
Internet communication model to compromise large numbers of networked
systems. Internet worms are increasingly being used as delivery
mechanisms for malicious payloads such as spyware, phishing servers,
spam relays, and information espionage. Unfortunately, current
operational practices still face significant challenges in containing
these threats as evidenced by the rise in automated botnet networks
and the continued presence of worms released years ago.

This workshop provides a forum for exchanging ideas, increasing  
understanding, and relating experiences on self-propagating malicious  
software from a wide range of communities, including academia,  
industry, and the government. We are soliciting papers from  
researchers and practitioners on subjects including, but not limited to:

Automatic worm detection and characterization
Reactive countermeasures
Proactive defenses
Detecting and disrupting botnets and malware command and control
Threat assessment
New threats and related challenges
Measurement studies
Testbeds \amp; evaluation
Reverse engineering
Significant operational experiences
Analysis of worm/botnet construction, current \amp; future
Modeling and analysis of propagation dynamics
Forensic methods of attribution
WORM aims to be a true workshop, with a primary goal of fostering the  
development of preliminary work and helping nucleate a worm-research  
community. To this end, WORM is open to two classes of submissions.

Paper Submissions:
First and foremost, we invite traditional paper submissions  
describing original work to appear in the WORM Proceedings to be  
published by ACM. Such submissions must not have been previously  
published and must not be in simultaneous submission elsewhere.

Papers describing original work should be at most 8 pages long  
(double column) in an 11-point font with at least 1-inch margins.  
Significantly shorter papers will also be considered in terms of the  
degree to which they might contribute to the Workshop goals of  
fostering a worm-research community. All such accepted papers will  
appear in the ACM WORM Proceedings.

Papers submitted must be original unpublished work and must not be  
simultaneously submitted or under review for any other workshop,  
conference or journal. Any paper found to be in violation of these  
rules will be rejected without review. Papers accompanied by non- 
disclosure agreement forms will not be considered. All submissions  
are treated as confidential, both as a matter of policy and in  
accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.

Panel Submissions:
WORM is also soliciting proposals for a discussion panel on a topic  
relevant to the workshop. Panel proposals must include the title of  
the panel, an abstract describing the topic and why it should be of  
interest to the WORM community, and a list of potential panelists.  
Panels are expected to be at most 1 hour long, comprised of short  
presentations by the panelists followed by discussion among panel  
members and the audience; other formats may be used, but should be  
described in the proposal.

Submission Instructions:

Papers must be received by 23:59:59 (EDT) of June 16th, 2006. Reviews  
of submissions and notification of acceptance or rejection will be  
sent to the authors no later than August 9th, 2006, and, for papers  
to appear in the WORM Proceedings, authors will have an opportunity  
to revise their work by August 21st, 2006. PLEASE NOTE: Authors of  
accepted papers must guarantee that their paper will be presented at  
the workshop.

More detailed submission instructions will be posted in a timely  
manner on this page.

Important Dates:

Paper submissions due:	June 16th, 2006
Acceptance notifications:	August 9th, 2006
Camera ready copy for accepted papers:	August 21st, 2006
CCS Conference:	October 30th - November 3rd, 2006


The workshop will be held on November 3rd, 2006. Please see http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~farnam/worm2006.html for more details.