Symposium Overview
The USENIX Security Symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, system administrators, system programmers, and others interested in the latest advances in the security and privacy of computer systems and networks. The 29th USENIX Security Symposium will be held August 12–14, 2020.
Important: The USENIX Security Symposium moved to multiple submission deadlines last year and included changes to the review process and submission policies. Detailed information is available at USENIX Security Publication Model Changes.
All researchers are encouraged to submit papers covering novel and scientifically significant practical works in computer security. The Symposium will span three days with a technical program including refereed papers, invited talks, posters, panel discussions, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. Co-located events will precede the Symposium on August 10 and 11.
Important Dates
Spring Quarter Deadline
- Refereed paper submissions due: Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 8:00 pm EDT
- Early reject notification: Monday, June 17, 2019
- Author responses due: Friday, June 21, 2019
- Notification to authors: Monday, August 19, 2019
- Final papers files due: Thursday, September 19, 2019, 11:59 pm EDT
Summer Quarter Deadline
- Refereed paper submission due: Friday, August 23, 2019, 8:00 pm EDT
- Early reject notification: Monday, September 23, 2019
- Author responses due: Friday, September 27, 2019
- Notification to authors: Friday, November 1, 2019
- Final papers files due: Monday, December 2, 2019, 11:59 pm EST
Fall Quarter Deadline
- Refereed paper submission due: Friday, November 15, 2019, 8:00 pm EST
- Early reject notification: Sunday, December 15, 2019
- Author responses due: Friday, December 20, 2019
- Notification to authors: Saturday, February 1, 2020
- Final papers files due: Monday, March 2, 2020, 11:59 pm EST
Winter Quarter Deadline
- Refereed paper submission due: Saturday, February 15, 2020, 8:00 pm EST
- Early reject notification: Sunday, March 15, 2020
- Author responses due: Friday, March 20, 2020
- Notification to authors: Friday, May 1, 2020 Friday, May 15, 2020
- Final papers files due: Monday, June 1, 2020, 11:59 pm EDT Monday, June 22, 2020, 11:59 pm EDT
Symposium Organizers
Program Co-Chairs
Program Committee
Steering Committee
Symposium Topics
Refereed paper submissions are solicited in all areas relating to systems research in security and privacy, including but not limited to:
- System security
- Operating systems security
- Web security
- Mobile systems security
- Distributed systems security
- Cloud computing security
- Network security
- Intrusion and anomaly detection and prevention
- Network infrastructure security
- Denial-of-service attacks and countermeasures
- Wireless security
- Security analysis
- Malware analysis
- Analysis of network and security protocols
- Attacks with novel insights, techniques, or results
- Forensics and diagnostics for security
- Automated security analysis of hardware designs and implementation
- Automated security analysis of source code and binaries
- Program analysis
- Data-driven security and measurement studies
- Measurements of fraud, malware, spam
- Measurements of human behavior and security
- Privacy-enhancing technologies and anonymity
- Usable security and privacy
- Language-based security
- Hardware security
- Secure computer architectures
- Embedded systems security
- Methods for detection of malicious or counterfeit hardware
- Side channels
- Research on surveillance and censorship
- Social issues and security
- Research on computer security law and policy
- Ethics of computer security research
- Research on security education and training
- Applications of cryptography
- Analysis of deployed cryptography and cryptographic protocols
- Cryptographic implementation analysis
- New cryptographic protocols with real-world applications
This topic list is not meant to be exhaustive; USENIX Security is interested in all aspects of computing systems security and privacy. Papers without a clear application to security or privacy, however, will be considered out of scope and may be rejected without full review.
Refereed Papers
Papers that have been formally reviewed and accepted will be presented during the Symposium and published in the Symposium Proceedings. By submitting a paper, you agree that at least one of the authors will attend the conference to present it. If the conference registration fee will pose a hardship for the presenter of the accepted paper, please contact conference@usenix.org.
A major mission of the USENIX Association is to provide for the creation and dissemination of new knowledge. In keeping with this and as part of USENIX’s open access policy, the Proceedings will be available online for registered attendees before the Symposium and for everyone starting on the opening day of the technical sessions. USENIX also allows authors to retain ownership of the copyright in their works, requesting only that USENIX be granted the right to be the first publisher of that work. See our sample consent form for the complete terms of publication.
Go to Paper Submission Policies and Instructions page for more information.
Symposium Activities
Due to USENIX Security '20 not occurring as an in-person event, there will not be a poster session or lightning talks this year.