Call for Papers
13th Annual Hot Topics in the
Science of Security (HotSoS) Symposium
April 14-16, 2026, Virtual
https://click.mlsend.com/link/c/YT0yODQ5NTAyMTExNDg4NTQ3MzY3JmM9dTRxOCZlPTAmYj0xNDgzMTAxNzg4JmQ9YjJpNHEyZg==.CbG3a6toHVeLpprfi7NZJ9cyvDtSl4lmQAn545PRr_A. Click or tap if you trust this link." data-ogsc="rgb(0, 123, 255)">http://hotsos.org
Hot Topics in the Science of Security (HotSoS) is a forum for presenting and discussing the latest research and development advances in the scientific foundations of cybersecurity and privacy. In the pursuit of mentorship and advancement of knowledge, the forum brings together researchers, practitioners, and thought leaders from government, industry, and academia. The National Security Agency (NSA) sponsorship of HotSoS provides for a collaborative relationship with NSA researchers, practitioners, and leaders and results in a unique attendee audience. The HotSoS vision is to engage and grow a community that includes researchers and skilled practitioners from diverse disciplines focused on the advancement of scientific methods. The event provides networking and mentoring opportunities to advance the scientific research careers of students. HotSoS`26 will continue to pioneer new methods to have impactful virtual events in April 2026. In addition to research paper discussions and presentations, the symposium program will also include invited talks, panels, and posters.
We solicit submissions in the following three categories:
- Already published research papers will be accepted for presentation provided that their scope aligns with HotSoS.
- Works-in-Progress papers (WiP) will be evaluated for scope, potential for impact, and technical merit. Papers in this category will be discussed during the special WiP session and receive detailed feedback towards making the paper publishable at a top-tier venue. We are looking for bold, risky, and interdisciplinary ideas.
- Poster/Demo abstracts will be selected for brief presentations and highlighted by a poster/demo competition.
Topics of Interest
- Defense of AI/ML Systems to Adversarial Behavior
- Multi-turn and long-context jailbreaks and defenses in interactive systems
- Approaches for durable safety alignment
- Security threats in multi-modal and cross-modal large models
- Mechanistic analyses of LLMs with implications for safety and reliability
- Systematic red teaming methodologies
- Adversarial dynamics in multi-agent and agentic AI systems
- Adversarial attacks and defenses on reasoning, and planning capabilities
- Data poisoning, backdoors, and training-time vulnerabilities
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Analyses of LLMs in cybersecurity
- Novel machine learning architectures for cybersecurity
- Cybersecurity analyses of AI algorithms and systems
- Defenses against AI-enabled adversaries
- Agentic AI systems
- Computer & Network Security
- Operating in degraded/compromised environments
- Static and dynamic analyses for securing software, reverse engineering, or other cybersecurity activities
- Scalable and composable frameworks for security
- Complex, distributed, and/or decentralized system security
- Design principles, tools, and architectures for provably secure systems and continuous monitoring and continuous authorization
- Security of cyber-physical, service mesh networks, embedded, and autonomous systems
- Other security topics
- Systemization of Knowledge (SoK) and research methods
- Analytic assessments of cyber risks
- Decisions models for cybersecurity
- Human subjects research relating to cybersecurity tools, practices and decision-making
- Ethical considerations in AI, security, and privacy
- Any other cybersecurity-related submissions are welcome aside from cryptography and offensive security
Important Dates
- Submission Deadline: December 23, 2025 AOE
- Acceptance Decisions: February 27, 2026
- Virtual Symposium: April 14-16, 2026
Organization
General Chair
Adam Tagert (National Security Agency)
Program Co-Chairs
Jonathan Aldrich (Carnegie Mellon University)
Benjamin Erichson (ICSI Berkeley)
Visit the website for full details: https://click.mlsend.com/link/c/YT0yODQ5NTAyMTExNDg4NTQ3MzY3JmM9dTRxOCZlPTAmYj0xNDgzMTAxNzkwJmQ9YjRqM3c2YQ==.llQ_pEijSMblHqSIHYbttZ1MvcBLHw-qsgsi3u-QKfs. Click or tap if you trust this link." data-ogsc="rgb(0, 123, 255)">http://hotsos.org
Please send any questions to hotsos2026@sos-vo.org.
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Natalie Scala
Professor and Cyber Fellow
Towson University
Towson MD
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