
              Second International Alternative Workshop on
                   Aggressive Computing and Security

                  iAWACS 2010: the Revelation Edition

                                 - * -
                         The no-limit workshop
                                 - * -

             "Enhancing security with the attacker's mind"

             "Orthodoxy and self confidence are weaknesses"

            "There is no such thing as forbidden knowledge,
                    only forbidden use of knowledge"


ESIEA - Paris - May 2010

Thinking security cannot be done without adopting a preferential mode of
thought of the attacker. A system cannot be defended if we do not know
how to attack it. If the theory is still an interesting approach to
formalize things, the operational approach must be the ultimate goal: to
talk about security is meaningless if we do not actually do security.

In recent years the major security conferences in the subjects preferred
to select papers according to fashion topics, conforming to something
like orthodoxy and organize selection as beauty contests. As a result
excellent yet unorthodox scientific papers are often rejected and sink
into oblivion.

The second international Alternative Workshop in Aggressive Computing
and Security (iAWACS'10) aims to focus on this vision and to allow
researchers and specialists to present relevant research works, with
interesting results and operational (theoretical and/or applied) in the
field of security. The different points of view, away from
unconventional fashion and orthodoxy are particularly welcome. The aim
is also to promote discussion of ideas around these topics.

Articles or contributions submitted will be selected according to the
following criteria:
  * Interest and scientific/technical correctness/accuracy
  * New results
  * Operational quality

Regarding this last point, the authors should give all information and
conditions for reproducibility of results they intend to present. This
may include, during the selection phase by the reviewers, assessments
based on challenges to the authors by the reviewers.

iAWACS is not just another hackers workshop where the last exploit is
disclosed.  The aim of the conference is to make security concepts
evolves through both the attacker's view AND a thorough formalization
backed by experimental results.

The main topics covered (list not exhaustive) are:
  * Cryptanalysis techniques
  * Steganalysis techniques
  * Malicious cryptography
  * Advanced computer virology techniques (malware, backdoor...)
  * Active security product analysis and testing
  * Active security auditing
  * Mathematical concepts and applications with respect to the
    attacker's view
  * Cyber warfare techniques
  * Digital data counterfeiting
  * Cryptographic and steganography techniques
  * Invisible trap/backdoor techniques in algorithms and applications
  * Implementation attacks
  * Interception/eavesdropping techniques
  * Forensics and anti-forensics techniques
  * Tempest and anti-tempest techniques
  * InfoOps techniques
  * Satellite hijacking

Articles should be submitted in electronic format, preferably in LaTeX
format, in English. Submissions of Word/OOwriter documents are accepted.
The address for submission is iawacs@esiea.fr
Submissions under hidden identities or aliases are not allowed.

Technical challenges will be organized during the conference. Attendees
who want to participate must register either now or on site. For this
second edition, two challenges will be organized:

  1. Antivirus evaluation challenge (PWN2KILL)
     The aim will be to bypass (and therefore practically evaluate the
     reality of) antivirus software protection. More details will be
     published later (when the list of accepted papers will be
     published) but challenge settings will be: Windows 7 and user mode
     only. The organizers reserve the right to choose freely the virus
     to be tested. A jury composed of a bailiff and journalists (from
     the computer technical press) will be responsible for technical
     control of the challenge.

  2. Cryptographic challenge (The Taliban AntiHackers... reloaded)
     This cryptanalysis challenge aims at recovering secret information
     in a real context of use. More to come but interested people can
     refer to the first edition of the challenge we organized at Hack.Lu
     2009 http://2009.hack.lu/index.php/CryptoChallenge

Workshops will also be organized (lock picking, soldering and free
hacking technical session and tutorials...). We also intend to invite
hacker spaces to come and present their work, initiatives...

Important dates:
  * Submission deadline: Feb 20th, 2010
  * Notification deadline: March 15th, 2010
  * Final manuscript submission for inclusion into the pre-proceedings:
    April 15th, 2010
  * Conference dates: May 12th - 14th, 2010

The conference proceedings will be published with ISBN by the Presses
Techniques of ESIEA. They will be given to registered participants at
the conference and can then be bought on the conference homepage. The
conference will be held at Ecole Superieure en Informatique,
Electronique et Automatique, in Paris from Wednesday 12th to Friday
14th, 2010. Each author will have 45 minutes of speaking time; each
presentation will be followed by a technical discussion between speakers
and listeners.

Conference registration amount to 200 Euros (includes proceedings,
coffee breaks, lunches, cocktail reception and social events). Students
fee are 100 Euros.

Organizing committee:
  * Program Chair: Eric Filiol (ESIEA)
  * Program Co-Chair: Anthony Desnos (ESIEA)
  * Program Co-Co-Chair: Robert Erra (ESIEA)
  * Nicolas Bodin (ESIEA)
  * Eddy Deligne (DCNS/ESIEA)
  * Christophe Grenier (DCNS/ESIEA)
  * Mickael Salaun (ESIEA)

Contacts:
  * Program chair: iawacs@esiea.fr
  * Organization committee: iawacs_orga@esiea.fr
  * Press contact: iawacs_press@esiea.fr
