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CALL FOR PAPERS
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The Workshop on Sustainable security and Awareness For nExt generation
infRastructures (SAFER 2026) in conjunction with the 21st International
Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2026)

Linköping, Sweden, August 24-27, 2026

For more details, please visit the SAFER 2026 official website:
https://www.ares-conference.eu/safer

SCOPE

Cybersecurity has always been, and will continue to be, a critical
challenge in our increasingly interconnected world, especially with the
rapid proliferation of the IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial
Intelligence) techniques. While extensive research is conducted to
enhance security solutions, many promising, the primary focus remains
solely on strengthening security, often neglecting other essential
dimensions of life, such as the ESG (Environment, Socio-economic, and
Governance) factors. For instance, cybersecurity practices can have
considerable environmental impacts, such as the energy consumption of
large data centers powering advanced encryption systems and training
large-scale neural networks, which significantly contribute to carbon
emissions. In fact, the digital sector, including IT and related
industries, already accounts for 3% to 4% of global greenhouse gas
emissions, a high percentage for such a relatively recent field. This
percentage is rapidly increasing, underscoring the urgency of
addressing environmental concerns alongside security. From an economic
perspective, the deployment of cybersecurity measures can impose
financial challenges on businesses and widen inequalities by
disadvantaging smaller enterprises. On a social level, overreaching
surveillance systems designed to improve security can unintentionally
undermine privacy, fostering mistrust among individuals. Regarding
governance, prioritizing security without sufficiently safeguarding the
citizens' rights risks disrupting the equilibrium of powers, where
cybersecurity tools are misused for political control and limiting
access to information. These are just a few of the many complex
challenges related to ESG at hand. In this context, it is essential to
aim for a more sustainable security that goes beyond technological
considerations and addresses the environment’s challenges, social
equity, privacy rights, and ethical governance.

The SAFER Workshop aims to investigate the intersection of computer
security and its ESG (Environmental, Socio-Economic, and Governance)
aspects. This workshop aims to unite interdisciplinary researchers and
practitioners to discuss challenges and solutions at the intersection of
these fields.

Topics of interest encompass the integration of cybersecurity principles
across various domains, including:

- green IT and energy-efficient solutions for IoT
- environmental impact of AI, ML, and security hardware
- equitable access to AI and other systems
- fairness in ML, AI, and other systems
- inclusivity, diversity, and gender equality in cybersecurity
- compliance with legislation and standards
- cybersecurity certifications
- compliance-by-design
- self-sovereignty
- social impact of blockchain technologies and decentralized systems
- e-voting and e-government
- fake news and disinformation
- cybersecurity awareness
- technology acceptance
- usable security for non-experts and accessible usable security
- data protection and privacy
- data governance
- data access and usage control
- cyber risk management and cyber insurance
- social engineering

The Workshop Chairs, in conjunction with the Workshop Program Committee,
will select the best paper, and its authors will be awarded a physical
(paper) and digital certificate.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submissions must have a maximum length of 18 pages, including
references, and must not substantially overlap with papers that have
been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a
conference with proceedings.

The accepted papers will be published by Springer in Lecture Notes in
Computer Science (LNCS).

More information is available at:
https://www.ares-conference.eu/submission-guidelines

IMPORTANT DATES

- May 4, 2026: Submission Deadlines (AoE)
- June 1, 2026: Author notification (AoE)
- June 13, 2026: Camera-ready upload (AoE)
- August 24–27, 2026: Conference

WORKSHOP CHAIRS

- Daniele Canavese, CNR-IMATI, Italy
- Mohamed Ali Kandi, IRIT-University of Toulouse, France
- Leonardo Regano, University of Cagliari, Italy