Call for Papers: Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy
(VehicleSec 2024)

Call for papers is now closed.

A vehicle is a machine that transports people and/or cargo in one or more physical domains, such as on the ground (e.g., cars, bicycles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, scooters, trains), in the air (e.g., drones, airplanes, helicopters), underwater (e.g., ships, boats, watercraft), and in space (e.g., spacecraft). Due to their safety- and mission-critical nature, the security and privacy of vehicles can pose direct threats to passengers, owners, operators, as well as the environment. Recent improvements in vehicle autonomy and connectivity (e.g., autonomous driving, drone delivery, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, intelligent transportation, drone swarm) have only served to exacerbate security and privacy challenges and thus require urgent attention from academia, industry, and policy-makers. To meet this critical need, the ISOC (Internet Society) VehicleSec symposium aims at bringing together an audience of university researchers, scientists, industry professionals, and government representatives to contribute new theories, technologies, and systems on any security/privacy issues related to vehicles (e.g., ground, aerial, underwater, space), their sub-systems (e.g., in-vehicle networks, autonomy, connectivity, human-machine interfaces), supporting infrastructures (e.g., transportation infrastructure, charging station, ground control station), and related fundamental technologies (e.g., sensing, control, AI/ML/DNN/LLM, real-time computing, edge computing, location service, simulation, digital twin, multi-agent protocol/system design, and human-machine interaction).

The Second ISOC Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec 2024) will take place on 26 February 2024, in conjunction with the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS) 2024 in San Diego, CA.

Journal extension opportunity. Outstanding papers from VehicleSec will receive invitations to expand and submit an extended version to a prestigious ACM journal. VehicleSec is currently in the process of finalizing the details in collaboration.

Community Reception. VehicleSec will host a reception as a community social event on the night of the symposium (26 February 2024), with refreshments such as food and drinks.

Keynote Speech: Following the model of VehicleSec 2023 and its predecessor, AutoSec workshops, we intend to feature two keynotes, one from academia and another from the industry, aiming at offering VehicleSec attendees a broader and more diverse perspective on the problem space.

Demo/Poster Session: VehicleSec will feature a demo/poster session to allow academic, governmental, and industry participants to share demonstrations and/or present posters of their latest practical attacks, defenses, and security/privacy tools or systems related to vehicles.

Lightning Talk Session: The symposium will feature a Lightning Talks session with short and engaging 5-minute in-person presentations on any topics that can be worth a timely shout-out to the VehicleSec community, which includes but not limited to emerging hot topics, preliminary research results, practical problems encountered, lessons learned, the introduction of tutorials and education materials, tips and tricks, simulators/simulations, data and visualizations (e.g., autonomous driving datasets), or other (interdisciplinary) topics related to vehicles.

Awards: Accepted papers and demos/posters will be considered for a Best Paper Award and Best Demo Award. The winners will receive cash prizes. In addition, a special AutoDriving Security Award, with a cash prize, will be given to one of the accepted papers to recognize and reward research that makes substantial contributions to secure today’s autonomous driving technology.

Travel Grants: Selected students will be provided with support to attend the symposium in person.

Submission Guidelines for Papers

We accept (1) regular papers up to 10 pages, and (2) short position papers or work-in-progress (WIP) papers up to 6 pages, all in double-column NDSS format and including references and appendices. Short papers are suitable for position papers or original works whose descriptions fit within 6 pages. WIP are suitable for original yet incomplete work that are looking for middle-stage feedback from the community. We also accept Systemization of Knowledge (SoK) papers; in this case, the paper length can be up to 10 pages, excluding references and well-marked appendices. Note that reviewers are not required to read the appendices or any supplementary material. Authors should not change the font or the margins of the NDSS format. For regular papers, shorter papers won’t be penalized; thus, authors are encouraged to submit papers of appropriate length based on the research contribution.

Papers must be formatted for US letter size (not A4) paper in a two-column layout, with columns no more than 9.25 in. high and 3.5 in. wide. The text must be in Times font, 10-point or larger, with 11-point or larger line spacing. Authors must use the NDSS templates. The NDSS 2024 templates are available at https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss2024/submissions/templates/. Submissions must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). Authors should pay special attention to unusual fonts, images, and figures that might create problems for reviewers. Documents should render correctly in Adobe Reader when printed in black and white.

Submissions should be anonymized for review; no author names or affiliations may appear on the title page, and papers should avoid revealing authors’ identities in the text. When referring to their previous work, authors are required to cite their papers in the third person, without identifying themselves. Short/WIP/SoK papers must have the prefix ”Short:”/”WIP:”/“SoK:” in their titles.

The submission portal for Papers is: https://vehiclesec24.hotcrp.com/

Once accepted, at least one of the authors should attend the conference to present it. Alternative arrangements can be made if there are justifiable difficulties in travel and will be allowed only on a case-by-case basis with permission from the PC Chairs. The proceedings will be published and archived by the Internet Society (ISOC).

Submission Guidelines for Demos and Posters

We accept demo/poster papers up to 1 page, in the double-column NDSS format and including references and appendices. Authors should not change the font or the margins of the NDSS format.

Submissions must be in Portable Document Format (.pdf). Authors should pay special attention to unusual fonts, images, and figures that might create problems for reviewers. Documents should render correctly in Adobe Reader when printed in black and white.

Submissions can be anonymized for review, but it is not mandatory. Demo/Poster papers must have the prefix “Demo:”/”Poster:” in their titles.

The submission portal for Demos/Posters is: https://vehiclesec24demosposters.hotcrp.com/

To allow the audience of VehicleSec to better learn and experience practical vehicle-related attacks/defenses/tools, VehicleSec will structurally encourage authors to submit Demos. Specifically, all accepted Demos will be provided a demo table, a monitor with HDMI cable, and a poster easel (so a superset of the setup for an accepted Poster, which will be provided only a poster easel). At the presentation time, each demo should have (1) exhibitions, slides, videos, and/or interactive/live demos to showcase on the table and the monitor, and (2) a poster presentation of the demo to be put on the easel. All the accepted demos will be considered for the Best Demo Award with cash prize. Note that although at the presentation time the setup of a Demo includes a Poster, authors only need to submit a Demo paper.

Submission Guidelines for Lightning Talks

We will host a Lightning Talks session on the symposium day, 26 February 2024. We solicit short and engaging 5-minute in-person presentations on any topics that can be worth a timely shout-out to the VehicleSec community, which includes but are not limited to emerging hot topics, work-in-progress research ideas, and preliminary results, practical problems encountered, lessons learned, tips and tricks, simulators/simulations, data and visualizations (e.g., autonomous driving datasets), or other (interdisciplinary) topics related to vehicles.

Note that the lightning talks are not intended for self-promotion or commercial advertisement. A good lightning talk should be to present an (outrageous) idea to engage the community and spark future research.

Please submit your Lightning Talk title and abstract (200 words or less) for full consideration via the Lightning Talk submission form by following the link below by 11 January 2024. Lightning Talk abstracts will be published on the symposium website.

The submission link for Lightning Talk is: https://tinyurl.com/yc63mh84

All submissions must include the presenter’s name, affiliation, and contact information.
Please note that the presenter must make all submissions. Submissions from PR firms will be rejected without review.
Time limits will be strictly enforced.
For additional information regarding Lightning Talks, do not hesitate to contact the Lightning Talk Chair Ming Li at [email protected].

Areas of Interest

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Embedded/sensor/analog/actuator security, privacy, and forensics in vehicle settings
Vehicle-related malware/firmware analysis
Secure/resilient/trustworthy/privacy-preserving perception, localization, planning, and control in autonomous/automated vehicles
Security/safety/robustness verification related to vehicles
Intra- and inter-vehicle network (e.g., CAN bus, V2X, remote operator channel) security
Multi-vehicle coordination/cooperation (e.g., V2X, drone swarm) security
Compliance with policies (e.g., legal, security, privacy, safety, and environmental policies)
Secure vehicle-related software/hardware development process (e.g., debugging tools, simulators, testbed) and their own security/privacy
Security/privacy of any vehicle-related fundamental technologies (e.g., sensing, control, AI, location service, IoT, etc.)

Secure integration of hardware and software systems for vehicles (e.g., ground, aerial)
Secure software/hardware updates in vehicle settings (e.g., cars, drones, airplanes)
Privacy challenges in vehicle settings, e.g., driver/passenger privacy, drone/car/robot spying, intellectual property stealing, etc.
Privacy-preserving data sharing and analysis in vehicle settings
Security/privacy in electric, medium- and heavy-duty vehicle systems
Security/privacy in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), e.g., intelligent traffic light
Security/privacy for vehicle-related supporting infrastructure (e.g., charging)
Human factors, trust, humans in the loop, and usable security related to vehicles
Security/privacy/resilience-related metrics and risk assessment for vehicles
Attacks leveraging GenAI (e.g., large language model) technologies and defense in response to GenAI technologies

Important Dates

Paper Submission Deadline: ~~15 December 2023~~ 29 December 2023, Anywhere-on-earth (Firm)
Demo/Poster Submission Deadline: ~~15 December 2023~~ 12 January 2024 Anywhere-on-earth (Firm)
Lightning Talk Submission Deadline: 11 January 2024
Notification of Acceptance: 25 January 2024
Camera Ready Submission: 10 February 2024
Symposium Date: 26 February 2024
Community Reception Date: 26 February 2024 (at night)

Double and Concurrent Submissions

Technical papers must not substantially overlap with papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference/workshop with proceedings. Double-submission will result in immediate rejection. The Program Committee may share information with other conference chairs and journal editors so as to detect such cases.

Ethical Considerations

Human Subjects Research: If a paper relates to human subjects, analyzes data derived from human subjects, may put humans at risk, or might have other ethical implications or introduce legal issues of potential concern to the VehicleSec community, authors should disclose if an ethics review (e.g., IRB approval) was conducted, and discuss in the paper how ethical and legal concerns were addressed.

Vulnerability Disclosure: If the paper reports a potentially high-impact vulnerability, the authors should discuss their plan for responsible disclosure. The chairs will contact the authors in case of concerns. The Program Committee reserves the right to reject a submission if insufficient evidence was presented that ethical or relevant legal concerns were appropriately addressed.

Conflicts of Interest

Authors and Program Committee members are required to indicate any conflict of interest and its nature. Advisors and those that they are advising, as well as authors and PC members with an institutional relationship, are considered to share a conflict of interest. Professional collaborations (irrespective of whether they resulted in publication or funding) that occurred in the past 2 years and close personal relationships equally constitute a conflict of interest. PC members, including chairs, who have a conflict of interest with a paper will be entirely excluded from the evaluation of that paper.

A Special Note on “Fake Conflicts”: Declaring conflicts of interest to avoid certain (otherwise non-conflicting) PC members is not allowed and can constitute grounds for rejection. The PC Chairs reserve the right to request additional explanation for any declared conflict. If authors have concerns about the fair treatment of their submissions, they should instead contact the chairs and provide convincing arguments for any special consideration that they are requesting.

Call for Papers: Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec 2024)