The 25th edition of the Computer Security track
at the 41st ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing
March 23 - 27, 2026, Thessaloniki, Greece
The Symposium
For more than forty years the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing has been a primary gathering forum for applied computer scientists, computer engineers, software engineers, and application developers from around the world. SAC 2026 is sponsored by the ACM Special Interest Group on Applied Computing (SIGAPP https://www.acm.org/sigapp); its proceedings are published by ACM and are available in printed form and on the web through the ACM Digital Library https://www.acm.org/dl. More information about SIGAPP and past editions of SAC can be found at https://www.acm.org/sigapp
The Computer Security track (25th edition)
The Security Track reaches its 25th edition this year and is among the longest running and most established tracks in the Symposium. The track aims at bringing together researchers working on applied issues in computer and information security.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following. In all cases, a paper's main contribution must be to computer or information security.
- software security (protocols, operating systems, etc.)
- hardware security (smartcards, biometric technologies, etc.)
- mobile security (properties for/from mobile agents, etc.)
- network security (anti-DoS tools, firewalls, real-time monitoring, mobile networks, sensor networks, etc.)
- covert communication (steganography, covert channels, etc.)
- security-specific software development practices (vulnerability testing, fault-injection resilience, etc.)
- privacy and anonymity (trust management, pseudonymity, identity management, electronic voting, etc.)
- safety and dependability issues (reliability, survivability, etc.)
- cyberlaw and cybercrime (copyrights, trademarks, defamation, intellectual property, etc.)
- security management and usability issues (security configuration, policy management, usability trials etc.)
- workflow and service security (business processes, web services, etc.)
- security in cloud computing and virtualised environments
- blockchain applications and security analysis of existing cryptocurrencies
- security and privacy in the IoT
- adversarial machine learning
Important Dates
| 17th October 2025 FINAL EXTENSION! | Submission of regular papers and SRC research abstracts |
| 21st November 2025 | Notification of Acceptance/Rejection |
| 5th December 2025 | Camera-Ready copies of accepted papers and SRC research abstracts |
| 12th December 2025 | Author registration due date |
| 23 - 27 March 2026 | SAC 2026 takes place |
Best Papers
- Best papers of SEC@SAC03 in special issue of Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience (Wiley), 16(1), 2004
- Best papers of SEC@SAC04 in special issue of the Journal of Computer Security (IOS), 13(5), 2005
- Best papers of SEC@SAC06 in special issue of the Journal of Computer Security (IOS), 17(3), 2009
- Best papers of SEC@SAC13 in special issue of the International Journal of Information Security (Springer), 14(2), 2015
This practice will be continued on the basis of appropriateness of the submissions.
Track Program Chairs
- Giampaolo BELLA
Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali, Università di Catania, Italy. - Sergio ESPOSITO
Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università di Catania, Italy.
Program Committee
- Aydin Abadi (Newcastle University, UK)
- Luca Arnaboldi (University of Birmingham)
- Mikael Asplund (Linköping University, Sweden)
- Jorge Blasco (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
- Anastasija Collen (Université de Genève, Switzerland)
- Gabriele Costa (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Natasha Fernandes (Macquarie University, Australia)
- Olga Gadyatskaya (Leiden University, Netherlands)
- Bhavani Shankar Garikapati (Lyft)
- Letterio Galletta (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Christian Gehrmann (Lund University, Sweden)
- Clementine Gritti (INSA Lyon, France)
- Mordechai Guri (Ben Gurion University, Israel)
- Christian Hammer (University of Passau, Germany)
- Helge Janicke (Edith Cowan University, Australia)
- Sokratis Katsikas (Norwegian University of Science & Technology, Norway)
- Achin Kulshrestha (Google)
- Manuel Maarek (Heriot-Watt University, UK)
- Ilaria Matteucci (CNR, Italy)
- Paolo Modesti (Teesside University, UK)
- Charles Morisset (Durham University, UK)
- Chris Novakovic (Thought Machine, UK)
- David Nowak (CNRS & Lille 1 University, France)
- Gwendal Patat (University of Rennes and IRISA, France)
- Irdin Pekaric (University of Liechtenstein)
- Ryan Shah (Sapphire, UK)
- Siamak Shahandashti (University of York, UK)
- Andrea Venturi (Vicomtech, Spain)
- Nicola Zannone (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
External Reviewers
- Zeeshan Afzal (Linköping University, Sweden)
- Hina Binte Haq (National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan)
- Davide Bonaventura (University of Catania, Italy)
- Caitlin Brown (Durham University, UK)
- Gianpietro Castiglione (University of Catania, Italy)
- Michele Cerreta (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Marco De Vincenzi (CNR, Italy)
- Charles Dodd (University of York, UK)
- Reyhane Falanji (Linköping University, Sweden)
- Andrea Franceschi (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Rémi Garcia (INRIA, France)
- Arnaud Grivet Sébert (Macquarie University, Australia)
- Ishaq Ibrahim (Durham University, UK)
- Edoardo Lunati (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Antonio Marcedone (Zoom)
- Marcello Maugeri (University of Catania, Italy)
- Jorrit Olthuis (Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands)
- Mario Raciti (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Daniele Francesco Santamaria (University of Catania, Italy)
- Marco Scapin (IMT Lucca, Italy)
- Charilaos Skandylas (Linköping University, Sweden)
- Luigi Soares (Macquarie University, Australia)
Submission Guidelines
The submission guidelines must be strictly followed for a paper to be considered.
Original papers from the above mentioned or other related areas will be considered. Only full papers about original and unpublished research are sought. Parallel submission to other peer-reviewed venues or other tracks of SAC 2026 is forbidden. Each paper must be BLIND in the sense that it must only include its title but not mention anything about its authors. Self-citation must be in third person, such as "Smith et al. [citation] showed...". All submissions must be formatted using the ACM conference-specific LaTeX style, which can be obtained from the symposium web page. The standard extension of a submission in the stated format is 8 pages. Longer papers (up to 10 pages maximum) will imply an additional charge. All papers must be submitted by the deadline stated above.
Review and publication of accepted papers
Each paper will be fully refereed and undergo a blind review process by at least three referees. Accepted papers will be published in the ACM SAC 2026 proceedings. Some papers may only be accepted as poster papers, and will be published as extended 2-page abstracts in the proceedings. Longer posters (up to 3 pages maximum) will imply an additional charge.
Important Notice - SAC No-Show Policy
Paper registration is required, allowing the inclusion of the papers and posters in the conference proceedings. An author or a proxy attending SAC MUST present the paper. This is a requirement for the paper/poster to be included in the ACM digital library. No-show of registered papers and posters will result in excluding them from the ACM digital library.
Student research abstract competition
Graduate students are invited to submit research abstracts here (single author, maximum of 3 pages in ACM camera-ready format) following the instructions published at the SAC 2026 website. Submission of the same abstract to multiple tracks is not allowed.
Important update on ACM's new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences
Starting January 1, 2026, ACM will fully transition to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. Authors will have two primary options for publishing Open Access articles with ACM: the ACM Open institutional model or by paying Article Processing Charges (APCs). With over 1,800 institutions already part of ACM Open, the majority of ACM-sponsored conference papers will not require APCs from authors or conferences (currently, around 70-75%).
Authors from institutions not participating in ACM Open will need to pay an APC to publish their papers, unless they qualify for a financial or discretionary waiver. To find out whether an APC applies to your article, please consult the list of participating institutions in ACM Open and review the APC Waivers and Discounts Policy. Keep in mind that waivers are rare and are granted based on specific criteria set by ACM.
Understanding that this change could present financial challenges, ACM has approved a temporary subsidy for 2026 to ease the transition and allow more time for institutions to join ACM Open. The subsidy will offer:
- $250 APC for ACM/SIG members
- $350 for non-members
This temporary subsidized pricing will apply to all conferences scheduled for 2026.