Topics on Secure Architectures (TOSAR) is a scientific symposium focused on practical aspects of Cryptography and Information Security. TOSAR 2018 aims to bring together specialists and researchers from both the Academia and Industry, with the main scope of disseminating the latest research results and trends. Even though it primarily deals with hardware implementations, system validation and experiments, innovative theoretical aspects are also welcome. By its unique structure, the event mixing together technical oral presentations, poster session and a supplementary exhibition of Inventics (TOSAR-INVENT) promoting the pending/granted patents registered in the field of Cryptography/Information Security, TOSAR is intended to become a flagship event of IEEE SSCS Romania. In addition, companies involved in the Security field are invited to present their products and services at a separate exhibition. The symposium will be held in Iasi (Romania), an important cultural, scientific and economic Romanian pole.

TOSAR – TOpics on Secure ARchitectures 2018 is a scientific symposium on Cryptography/Information Security, entirely unique from multiple perspectives, as it is:

    – the first (scientific) event focused on Cryptography/Information Security and organized in Iasi by “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University, ETTI respectively;
    – the first (scientific) event focused on Cryptography/Information Security organized by IEEE SSCS Romania;
    – the first (scientific) event focused on Cryptography/Information Security organized in Romania under the patronage of IEICE-CS;
    – the first (scientific) event organized in Romania on Cryptography that has an abstract based peer-review process, followed by a review of the extended article;
    – the first (scientific) event organized in Romania on Cryptography that has a supplementary (special) session dedicated to (accepted/pending) patents registered in this field, called TOSAR-INVENT, with the main scope of mixing the theory with practice, bringing together specialists from Academia and Industry.

To make use of all benefits of this unique event while ensuring a reasonable quality as scientific event, the prospective authors are informed that:

    1. A double-blind peer review process will be applied. In addition, the reviewers will not know the identity of other reviewers assigned to their article(s).
    2. An Abstract of one page with at least 250 words and maximum 10 (mandatory) references should be transmitted via the built-in upload form currently available on Submission page (or click here to submit a title), no full-length article being required during this step.
    3. The Abstract should not contain any personal detail of the authors, such as names, affiliation, e-mail etc. All these will be sent in separate file that should be uploaded together with the Abstract. However, all co-authors will be informed about the paper submission.
    4. To maximize the chances of being accepted, the Abstract should explain the relevance, novelty and benefits of the proposed technical contribution, (design) concept or algorithm, while emphasizing on experimental setup and theoretical/practical results.
    5. The Abstract is evaluated internally and a final decision is transmitted to authors.
    6. The minimum number of reviewers assigned to any proposed title is 2. If necessary, external reviewers will be solicited.
    7. If accepted, this one-page Abstract will be included in TOSAR proceeding delivered on USB-disk to all participants, together with the Technical program.
    8. To attend the event, at least one author of an accepted title (Abstract) should register before the Pre-registration deadline, by paying a non-refundable registration fee according to the rates shown on the main page.
    9. A title not presented by one of its authors or other TOSAR participant will not be taken into consideration for the second review of the extended paper that is to be submitted for publication in IEEEXplore. However, a Skype presentation during the event could be arranged in advance to avoid “no show” situation (on request). Because of the short time-scale and to favor a broad participation, the authors from Asia and American continent are excepted from this rule, the Abstract evaluation being sufficient to have the title included in the TOSAR proceeding, if accepted. The same exception addresses TOSAR-INVENT.
    10. The author(s) of an accepted Abstract is/are invited to (but not required to) submit a full paper of 4-6 pages after paying the registration fee. The full paper is reviewed after the event by the same reviewers assigned to the proposed Abstract.
    11. All files submitted for review should be in *.doc format, according to the used template.
    12. Papers should have no more than 40% overlap with prior publications and the number of references should be proportionate to the work.
    13. No late-registration is accepted for TOSAR! All participants should register before the Pre-registration day (November 21, 2018).

The template that should be used for Abstract is available here in *.doc format.
Full IEEE template should be used for the extended article that could have 4-6 pages, including references. Exceptionally, the extended article may have 3 pages.

TOPICS of interest for TOSAR 2018:

1. Hardware implementations for Security: Cryptoprocessors, Hardware security primitives, Security for Embedded Systems, FPGA testing and validation for security, System-on-chip (SoC) security, RFID Security, Side-channel analysis, Automotive Cybersecurity, EMSEC/TEMPEST etc. (topics of major interest from IEEE SSCS perspective)

2. Cryptographic primitives and protocols: Public-key primitives, Symmetric key primitives, Digital signatures, Secret sharing, Post-quantum cryptography, Efficient software implementations, etc.

3. Computer and Information Security: Authentication and identification, Application level security, Cloud security, Distributed systems security, Mobile & network security, Malware and unwanted software, etc.