Welcome to IWSSI 2007, the First International Workshop on Security for Spontaneous Interaction

One of the cornerstones in Mark Weiser's vision of ubiquitous computing is the potential for interacting with services, anywhere, anytime. Advances in mobile computing, ad hoc networks, context awareness, and human computer interaction now facilitate a seamless, spontaneous interaction between users, devices, and services. However, securing such interactions is difficult, because typically there will be no a priori shared information such as passwords, addresses, or PIN codes. Neither can we assume a globally trusted third party for certifying users, devices, and services. A few different approaches to securing spontaneous interactions have recently been suggested, and some of them have already been adopted for standardization. However, many research challenges still remain as none of the known solutions is fully satisfactory with respect to security, on the one hand, and usability, on the other hand.

One of the main issues in security for spontaneous interaction is the lack of common ground. This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on the topic, to define open issues, clarify the used terminology, and foster cooperation between researchers in this area.

Topic of Interest

Specific topics of interest for this workshop include, but are not limited to (in the context of spontaneous interaction):
  • Authentication protocols and methods for device pairing
  • Sensor-, context-, and location-based authentication methods
  • Methods for realizing constrained channels
  • Authorization, access control, and trust management
  • Logging and auditing
  • Network and system models
  • User interfaces and models for user interaction
  • Privacy and anonymous/pseudonymous interactions
  • Making use of spontaneous interaction in applications

Submission Categories

There will be two separate categories for submission:
  • Full papers: We solicit novel contributions of up to 6 pages in Springer two-column style on any of the topics of interests or related areas. These must not significantly overlap with other papers previously published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Accepted papers will be published in the Ubicomp 2007 workshop proceedings.
  • Position papers: Position papers should be no longer than 2 pages in Springer two-column style and may present already published work in the context of IWSSI 2007, work in progress, as well as ideas and concepts for future research.
We encourage authors to submit to both categories if deemed appropriate.
Please use this template for preparing submissions.

All submissions should be sent to Rene Mayrhofer <rene@comp.lancs.ac.uk> in PDF or Postscript format no later than June 8th, 2007 with a subject of "IWSSI 2007 submission". Please do not send Word or other formats to avoid formatting problems.

Workshop Format and Goals

Authors of accepted full and position papers will be invited to give short presentations at the beginning of the workshop with brief discussion phases, followed by an open panel and more specific discussion groups to discuss common ground and open challenges. The open panel is also a forum for informally presenting demonstrators, which is encouraged.

In addition to the Ubicomp 2007 workshop proceedings, accepted contributions will be published on the workshop web page. Results in form of agreed terminology, recognized issues and research challenges, and potentially future research agendas will be added to a workshop Wiki where attendees can directly add content after the workshop. This Wiki may act as an initial platform for a research community on security for spontaneous interaction.

A special issue for IJSN, the International Journal of Security and Networks, is planned and authors of select workshop contributions will be invited to prepare articles for this issue.

Organizers and Program Co-Chairs

Expert Reviewers

We especially thank our expert reviewers for providing detailed, timely feedback to the authors. Each of the submissions received between one and two expert reviews by peer researchers working specifically on the respective topic, in addition to the short feedback by the program co-chairs.
  • Dirk Balfanz (Palo Alto Research Center, US)
  • Alastair Beresford (University of Cambridge, UK)
  • Bogdan Groza (Politehnica University of Timisoara, RO)
  • Apu Kapadia (Dartmouth College, US)
  • Tim Kindberg (HP Labs Bristol, UK)
  • John Krumm (Microsoft Research Redmond, US)
  • Marc Langheinrich (ETH Zurich, CH)
  • Bernt Schiele (TU Darmstadt, DE)
  • Georg Treu (LMU Munich, DE)
  • Pim Tuyls (Philips Nat.Lab Eindhoven, NL)
  • Alex Varshavsky (University of Toronto, CA)