Submission deadline has been extended to 3 March 2019.

Cyberattacks have evolved into a threat for modern society, as they affect both individuals and organizations alike. Attacks can have a multitude of different forms, ranging from denial of service to ransomware, and target government, critical infrastructure, businesses or private environments. As this threat cannot be ignored, it should be detected as early as possible, to prevent damage as much as possible. As attacks often employ multiple stages, that compromise more and more machines and/or remove more and more lines of defense, early detection seems all the more necessary. At the same time, attacks, especially if evolving over many weeks, try to stay undetected and hence employ many measures in order not to raise suspicion, which renders detection a difficult endeavor. When an attack is detected, an appropriate response is necessary, which can be as straightforward and painful as disconnecting the victim from the net, but also can take many other forms, up to offensive countermeasures that try to attack the attacker. Both attacks and countermeasures include technical and social means, as it is sometimes easier to find out e.g. the structure of a company network by interviewing careless employees than by doing a reconnaissance.

Hence, this special issue targets actual research on the detection of and response to cyberattacks on all levels, e.g. individuals, organizations, ISPs, critical infrastructure. Research papers can address technical and/or social aspects of cyberattack detection and response, so e.g. social engineering and spear phishing detection are within the scope of the special issue.

Submission Guidelines

The Journal of Universal Computer Science is a high-quality electronic publication that deals with all aspects of computer science. J.UCS has been appearing monthly since 1995 and is thus one of the oldest electronic journals with uninterrupted publication since its foundation. A number of special issues as well as the printed archive editions of the volumes are also available in print and can be ordered directly from J.UCS office. The impact factor of J.UCS is 0.696, the 5-year impact factor 0.770 (2016). For further information, please refer to:

http://www.jucs.org/jucs_info/aims/unique_features.html

Manuscripts must be submitted in PDF format, written in English and should not exceed 20 pages. Papers only prepared according to the JUCS’s guidelines for authors and submitted online (see procedure described below) will be included in the review process. Illustrations and tables must be provided as integrated parts of the manuscript. The guidelines for authors are available at:

http://www.jucs.org/ujs/jucs/info/submissions/style_guide.html

For all potential authors who have received an invitation for an extended version of their CECC 2018 paper, please bear in mind that we can only consider submissions which are significantly extended (at least 50 percent new material and the title of the extended version must clearly and unmistakably differ from the title of the article presented at the conference). Only novel research papers which are currently not under review at another event or a journal are accepted for the review process. For more details, please also refer to:

http://www.jucs.org/ujs/jucs/info/special_issues/special_guidelines.html

Please submit your original and proof-read papers not later than 3 March 2019 15 February 2019 using the submission system on EasyChair. Each paper will be blind reviewed by at least 3 reviewers. According to the covered main subjects in the content, a selected set of reviewers with the appropriate expertise will be assigned.

List of Topics

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Malware presence detection (e.g., covert communication) at organizational and ISP levels
• Malware activation detection and response (e.g., ransomware)
• Malware propagation detection and blocking (e.g., network-based malware detection and responses)
• Botnet detection
• Response to DDoS attacks, especially in critical infrastructure sectors
• Detection of compromised network infrastructure (e.g., DNS spoofing) at organizational and ISP levels
• Technical detection of social components of cyberattacks (e.g., spear phishing, social engineering) and countermeasures
• Human-based detection of social components of cyberattacks (e.g., awareness, training, motivation)
• Detection of malicious actions by organizational insiders (technical and human-based)
• Cyber resilience of organizational insiders, especially in critical infrastructure sectors
• Detection of cyber-physical attacks on smart systems (e.g., smart home burglary prevention)
• Impact of detection and response measures on the investigation of cyberattacks
• Detection and response to cyber-physical attacks on critical infrastructure
• Cyberattack countermeasures, especially offensive responses

Committees

Guest Editors

• Jörg Keller, University of Hagen, Germany <joerg.keller@fernuni-hagen.de>
• Wojciech Mazurczyk, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland <wmazurcz@elka.pw.edu.pl>
• Béla Genge, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology of Tg. Mures, Romania <bela.genge@ing.upm.ro>
• Lothar Fritsch, Karlstad University, Sweden <lothar.fritsch@kau.se>
• Simon Vrhovec, University of Maribor, Slovenia <simon.vrhovec@um.si>

Program Committee

• Igor Bernik, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Luca Caviglione, IMATI - CNR, Italy
• Michal Choras, University of Science and Technology, Poland
• Tobias Eggendorfer, University of Applied Sciences Ravensburg-Weingarten, Germany
• Lothar Fritsch, Karlstad University, Sweden
• Bela Genge, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology of Tg. Mures, Romania
• Petra Grd, University of Zagreb, Croatia
• Mordechai Guri, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
• Piroska Haller, University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology of Tg. Mures, Romania
• Georgios Karopoulos, Joint Research Centre, Italy
• Stefan Katzenbeisser, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
• Jörg Keller, University of Hagen, Germany
• Jean-Francois Lalande, CentraleSupélec / Inria, France
• Olaf Maennel, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
• Bradley A. Malin, Vanderbilt University, USA
• Blaž Markelj, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Jorge T. Martins, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
• Wojciech Mazurczyk, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
• Anže Mihelič, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Pal-Stefan Murvay, Politehnica University of Timisoara, Romania
• Gerardo I. Simari, Universidad Nacional del Sur in Bahía Blanca and CONICET, Argentina
• Kai Simon, Kai Simon Consulting, Germany
• Daniel Spiekermann, University of Hagen, Germany
• Simon Vrhovec, University of Maribor, Slovenia
• Damian Weber, University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken, Germany
• Edgar R. Weippl, SBA Research, Austria
• Steffen Wendzel, Worms University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• Christos Xenakis, University of Piraeus, Greece

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to the guest editors.