CFP

PC26: PasswordsCon

Munster Technological University

Cork, Ireland, December 8-9, 2026

Conference web page	https://cyberexplore.ie/passwordscon-2026/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=pc26
Submission deadline	October 4, 2026

Topics: passwords credentials & attacks authentication technologies & frameworks digital identity & eid ecosystems identity assurance usability & policy

The Passwords Conference is the world’s first conference dedicated to passwords, PINs, and digital authentication. Originally launched as a small workshop in 2010 by Per Thorsheim at the University of Bergen, Norway, it has grown significantly and has been hosted across Europe and the United States.

In 2014 and 2015, the conference accepted peer-reviewed papers published in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series (LNCS 9393, Trondheim 2014; LNCS 9551, Cambridge 2015). PasswordsCon 2026 will reintroduce a peer-reviewed paper track in Springer LNCS for it's 16th edition. It brings together researchers, practitioners, password crackers, and industry experts from around the world to explore challenges in authentication security, usability, and policy. PasswordsCon is known for its collaborative and informal environment, encouraging open discussion between participants and speakers throughout the event.

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. Full and Short papers are welcome on any of the topics listed below or anything related to the topics, including human centred interaction topics.

Accepted papers will be published after the conference by Springer as part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series. Authors must prepare their submissions — and, if accepted, their final camera-ready versions — using the Springer LNCS template.

Instructions for authors

Papers must be submitted as PDF using the Springer LNCS format for Latex. Abstract and title must be submitted one week ahead of the paper deadline.

Submisions for research and short papers are handled via Easychair

We seek submissions for review in the following three categories:

Research Papers
Short Papers
"Hacker Talks" (talks without academic papers attached)

Research Papers should describe novel, previously unpublished technical contributions within the scope of the call. The papers will be subjected to double-blind peer review by the program committee. Paper length is limited to max 12,000 words (LNCS format) excluding references and well-marked appendices. The paper submitted for review must be anonymous, hence author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, or obvious references must be temporarily edited out for the review process. The program committee may reject non-anonymized papers without reading them.

Short Papers will also be subject to peer review, where the emphasis will be put on work in progress, hacker achievements, industrial experiences, and incidents explained, aiming at novelty and promising directions. Short paper submissions should not be more than 5,000 words in standard LNCS format in total. A short paper must be labeled by the subtitle "Short Paper". Accepted short paper submissions may be included in the conference proceedings. Short papers do not need to be anonymous. The program committee may accept full research papers as short papers.

Hacker Talks are presentations without an academic paper attached. They will typically explain new methods, techniques, tools, systems, or services within the Passwords scope. Proposals for Hacker Talks can be submitted by anybody ("hackers", academics, students, enthusiasts, etc.) in any format, but typically will include a brief (2-3 paragraphs) description of the talk's content and the person presenting. They will be evaluated by a separate subcommittee led by Per Thorsheim, according to different criteria than those used for the refereed papers, send brief to: cfp@passwordscon.org. These talks will not be part of proceedings.

At least one of the authors of each accepted paper must register and present the paper at the workshop. Papers without a full registration will be withdrawn from the proceedings and from the workshop programme.

Papers that pass the peer review process and that are presented at the workshop will be included in the event proceedings, published by Springer in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series.

Papers must be unpublished and not being considered elsewhere for publication. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism will be treated as a serious offense.

Program committee members may submit papers but program chairs may not.

The time frame for each presentation will be either 30 or 45 minutes, including Q&A.

· Prior PasswordsCon proceedings in Springer LNCS: https://link.springer.com/conference/passwords

List of Topics

· Passwords & PINs

· Multifactor Authentication

· Password Cracking

· FIDO, WebAuthn, and Passkeys

· OAuth and OIDC

· Digital ID and IAM

· Identity Federation

· Authentication Frameworks

· ID Standardization and Regulation

· EU Digital ID and Digital Wallet

· NIST SP 800-63 Digital Identity

· Password Managers

· Phishing for ID and Credentials

· Usability of Authentication

· Password Security Awareness

· ID Enrolment

· Remote Identity Verification

· Verifiable Credentials

· Social, Cultural & Economic Challenges for Secure Authentication

· AI, Machine Learning, Pattern Analysis (Code Breaking)

· eID Providers

· eID Tokens

· eID Business Models

· Biometric Authentication

· Authentication Assurance Levels

· Authentication Risk

· Cryptographic Credentials

Committees

Program Committee

1. Dr Ita Ryan, Post Doc researcher at University College Cork, Ireland.

2. Dr David Malone, Professor at Maynooth University, Ireland.

3. Dr Peter Mayer, Associate Professor at University of Southern Denmark.

4. Dr Leona Lassak, Post doc at University of Bochum.

5. Dr Sven Bugiel, Researcher, Tenure-Track Faculty at the CISPA Helmholtz Center for

Information Security, Germany.

6. Dr Scott Ruoti, Associate professor, University of Tennessee.

7. Dr Ding Wang, Professor, Nankai University.

8. Dr Elizabeth Stobert, Associate Professor, Carleton University.

9. Divyanshu Bhardwaj, PhD candidate, CISPA.

10. Madison Pickering, PhD candidate, University of Chicago.

11. Dr Collins W. Munyendo, Post doc, UC Berkely.

12. Dr Haibo Cheng, Post doc, Peking University.

13. Dr Sana Maqsood, Associate professor, York University.

14. John Ronan, PhD candidate, South Eastern Technological University, Ireland.

15. Dan Farcus, PhD candidate, Maynooth University Ireland.

16. Dean Brennan, PhD candidate, University of Limerick.

17. Veerle Van Harten, PhD Candidate, TU Delft.

18. Siddharth Das Sarkar, PhD candidate, George Washington University.

Organizing Committee

Dr Hazel Murray, chair of cybersecurity MTU, (Conference chair).
Dr Ashley Sheil, cybersecurity researcher MTU (Programme chair).

Publication

PC26 proceedings will be published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS).

Venue

The conference will be held in Munster Technological University, Cork, Ireland.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to ashley.sheil@mtu.ie.