Enigma 2017 Call for Participation

Download the Call for Participation PDF

Important Dates

Submissions due: August 22, 2016 August 29, 2016, 11:59 pm PDT DEADLINE EXTENDED!
Program announced: October 2016

Conference Organizers

Program Co-Chairs

David Brumley, Carnegie Mellon University
Parisa Tabriz, Google

Program Committee

Michael Bailey, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Joseph Bonneau, Stanford University and Electronic Frontier Foundation
David Brumley, Carnegie Mellon University
Tudor Dumitras, University of Maryland, College Park
John "Four" Flynn, Uber
Yanick Fratantonio, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kevin Fu, University of Michigan and Virta Labs
Eva Galperin, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Flavio Garcia, University of Birmingham
Carrie Gates, Dell
Vito Genovese, Legitimate Business Syndicate
Srinivas Inguva, Twitter
Jaeyeon Jung, Microsoft Research
William “Brad” Martin, National Security Agency
Damon McCoy, New York University
Eric Mill, 18F, GSA
Tyler Nighswander, ForAllSecure
Daniela Oliveira, University of Florida
Kurt Opsahl, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Bryan Payne, Netflix
Zachary Peterson, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Mark Risher, Google
Eric Rozier, University of Cincinnati
Yan Shoshitaishvili, University of California, Santa Barbara
Alex Stamos, Facebook
Parisa Tabriz, Google
Chenxi Wang, Twistlock Inc.
Jordan Wiens, Vector 35
Mary Ellen Zurko, Cisco Systems

Enigma: Security and Privacy Ideas That Matter

Enigma centers on a single track of engaging talks covering a wide range of topics in security and privacy. Our goal is to clearly explain emerging threats and defenses in the growing intersection of society and technology, and to foster an intelligent and informed conversation within the community and with the world. Enigma is a three-day conference of technical talks curated by a panel of experts from industry, academia, government, and more.

Enigma is committed to fostering an open, collaborative, and respectful environment. Enigma and USENIX are also dedicated to open science and open conversations and will make all talk media freely available on the USENIX web site.

Call for Speakers

We solicit proposals for original talks intended to be 20 minutes in length, allowing for 10 minutes of time for Q&A to follow. The program committee will select presentations that highlight technical content with practical application to current and emerging topics in security and privacy. Our program benefits from a diversity of topics and perspectives. We’re interested in talks that cover new insights into popular topics (e.g., web and network security, abuse), as well as emerging topics (e.g., critical infrastructure, crypto usability, exploit development, consumer privacy). We welcome both talks that share pragmatic advice and those that explain high-risk research; in both cases, submissions should include a strong technical component. We will also consider talks that push the community to evolve, such as those focused on social issues related to security and privacy. You might find it helpful to reference the past program to get an idea of the diversity of topics and tone we seek at Enigma.

Enigma emphasizes presentation quality, so we are looking for great explainers: those who can describe complex topics and convey their excitement while maintaining the integrity of science.

To achieve a cohesive program, the program committee will work with all speakers ahead of the conference via a series of practice sessions to help all speakers craft and best tell their story within the larger context of the conference.

Submission Guidelines

To submit a talk, please prepare the following information and submit it to the Enigma 2017 Submission System.

Speaker Information

• Primary Speaker Name
• Primary Speaker Title and Company/Affiliation (if applicable)
• Primary Speaker Email Address
• Primary Speaker Bio
• [OPTIONAL] Social networking handle(s)
• [OPTIONAL] Home page

Presentation Information

• Talk Title
• Presentation Summary. Please include (1) the core idea, (2) why it matters, and (3) a brief summary of prior work either by yourself or in the field. We encourage participants to use the following format:
• An abstract of the talk. We will use this to understand technical merit and, if selected, for promotional purposes.
• A script of the introduction to the talk. This need not be a complete talk. We will use this to understand tone and delivery.
• A discussion of the main points made. We will use this to understand content.
• Approximate total length: 3 pages.
• Are you releasing code alongside your presentation (e.g., tool, library, exploit)?
• Are you currently submitting this topic to any other conferences held prior to Enigma?
• Has a version of this presentation been given or accepted to any other venue or conference?

All accepted speakers will be assigned a shepherd from the program committee to help with presentation preparation. To be clear, we want you to talk about your work and your passion in your own way; our goal is to provide feedback to make sure the talk is as clear as possible. However, speakers must participate in the process of giving practice talks, and talks not meeting a high delivery and content level will be eliminated.

We encourage you to review the following talks as references for exemplary Enigma talks:

• "Why Is Usable Security Hard, and What Should We Do about It?" (usability talk)
• "Disrupting Nation State Hackers" (government talk)
• "Hacking Health: Security in Healthcare IT Systems" (healthcare talk)

The full set of Enigma 2016 talks are available online for free per the USENIX open access policy.

Speaker Benefits

Upon acceptance of a talk presentation by the Organizing Committee, speakers can expect to receive the following benefits:

• Registration to Enigma: We are happy to offer you complimentary conference registration for yourself. We will contact you with instructions about how to receive your complimentary speaker registration. When you arrive at Enigma, your speaker badge and thank-you gift will be available at Speaker Badge Pickup.
• Speakers’ Lounge: Enigma will include a Speakers’ Lounge with space to test your A/V setup and presentation, as well as network access and snacks and beverages. Access to the Lounge is limited to speakers and instructors.
• Travel Support: USENIX is pleased to offer reimbursement for air travel to speakers who do not have employer support. We will also pay directly for your conference hotel room for the night before and of your talk if you lack employer support for that, as well.
• Honoraria: USENIX recognizes the time and effort you put into crafting an excellent talk and presenting it, and understands that every speaker has a different employment situation. Thus we offer honoraria in the amount of $500 to speakers who are permitted to accept such payments and would appreciate the gesture.
• Talk Production Quality: Speakers will receive dedicated coaching and feedback from program committee members in preparation for their talks, and all talks will be professionally recorded and produced at high production values.
• Copyright: You own the copyright to your work. USENIX does require that you consent, in advance of the conference, to release your slides and video to the general public.

Questions?

Please contact enigma17chairs@usenix.org.