Effectively protecting computer systems from cyber-attacks is a challenging task due to their large scale and the heterogeneity of the underlying hardware and software components. Furthermore, when trying to defend from an attack, the time factor is critical and any non-guided human resolution attempt could introduce a significant stress and delay to the execution of the proper response. This situation provides the attackers more time to accomplish their objectives.

Several organizations, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have released guidelines and best practices to manage cyber-security related risk (e.g., the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 1.1). However, despite a growing interest in the area in the last 5 years, automation of cyber-security operations is still at its early stages.

Automatically defending a computer system encompasses a large number of activities, that range from data capture, management and analysis, to automated decision making and automated system operations.

In this workshop, we solicit high quality contributions that fit with the overarching idea of creating a fully automated protection system. ​The aim of the workshop is to share new findings, exchange ideas and discuss research challenges​ on the following topics ​(not an exhaustive list)​:

* Distributed System Monitoring
* Secure Monitoring
* Feature Selection
* Automatic Data Correlation (Batch/Streaming)
* Intrusion Detection
* Anomaly Detection
* Threats Detection
* Cyber-Deception: approaches, analysis, honeypots, metrics, moving target defense
* Software engineering for self-protecting systems: System architectures, services, components and platforms, Goal specification and policies
* Risk Management
* Intrusion Response
* Attack Modeling
* Defense Modeling
* Implementation of prototypes that integrate cutting edge technologies, e.g., Software Defined Networks, Container-Based systems, applications based on micro-services
* Non-Stationary Systems Modeling
* Behavioural Modeling
* Cooperative/Competitive Multi-agents modeling

Furthermore, we solicit submissions that examine the self-protection problem from an holistic perspective, that is, that will consider the overall picture and propose novel software architectures, frameworks and technologies to ease the realization of self-protecting systems.

========= Organizing Committee =========

In alphabetical order:
* Emiliano Casalicchio
Sapienza University of Rome and Blekinge Institute of Technology
Department of Computer Science
Via Salaria, 113 - 00198 Rome, Italy
* Stefano Iannucci
Mississippi State University
Computer Science and Engineering
4665 George Perry Street, Mississippi State, MS, 39762
* Byron J. Williams
University of Florida
Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering
432 Newell Dr E301 CSE BLDG, Gainesville, FL 32611

========= Publicity Chair =========

* Fabiana Rossi
University of Rome "Tor Vergata"
Department of Civil Engineering and Computer Science Engineering
Via del Politecnico, 1 - 00133 Rome, Italy

========= Invited Speakers =========

Daniel A. Menasce' (George Mason University, USA)
Craig Shorter (National Strategic Planning & Analysis Research Center, MSU, USA)

========= Workshop Deadlines =========

* Workshop paper submission deadline: June 7, 2020 23:59 AoE (strict)
* Workshop paper acceptance notification: July 1, 2020
* Final Manuscript (paper): July 8, 2020
* Workshop day: August 17, 2020

========= Submission and Review Process =========

Submissions will be accepted on Easychair. You can find the latest information and the submission URL at: https://sites.google.com/view/sps20

All manuscripts will be reviewed by at least three members of the TPC. Manuscripts will be judged on merits including originality, significance, interest, correctness, clarity, and relevance. Papers will be strongly encouraged to report experiences, measurements, and user studies, and to provide an appropriate quantitative evaluation.

========= Publications =========

Accepted workshop papers will be published in the proceedings and submitted for inclusion to IEEE Xplore (final agreement with IEEE pending but expected). Papers must thus be in the same format as the conference proceedings and may not be more than 6 pages in length.

We are in contact with some high-quality journal for the organization of a special issue about Self-protecting systems. The authors of the best workshop papers will be invited for submitting an extended version of their work.

========= Venue =========

SPS20 is Part of the FAS* Workshops series held in conjunction with 1st IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Self-Organizing Systems.
The conference will be held in Washington, DC, on August 17 - 21.

========= Technical Program Committee =========

TBA