Call for Papers

Topics of Interest

We invite submissions on all aspects of cyberbiosecurity, including but not limited to:

Security of Biological Infrastructure

  • Authentication and authorization for laboratory equipment and automated systems
  • Secure communication protocols for biomanufacturing networks
  • Zero-trust architectures for biotechnology environments
  • Physical-digital security for biocontainment facilities
  • Supply chain security for biological materials and reagents

Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity

  • Security of precision agriculture and smart farming
  • Threats to food supply chains and automated harvesting
  • Data integrity in digital agriculture systems
  • Vulnerabilities in agri-biotech machinery
  • Secure environmental monitoring networks

AI Safety in Biotechnology

  • Adversarial attacks on machine learning models in biological applications
  • Safety alignment for AI-driven protein design and metabolic engineering
  • Formal verification methods for bio-AI systems
  • Information hazard management in AI-accelerated biological research
  • Robustness testing for biological discovery models

Biomedical Device and System Security

  • Security of implantable and wearable medical devices
  • Hospital network security and medical data interoperability
  • Vulnerabilities in telemedicine infrastructure
  • Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for medical devices
  • Cybersecurity for bio-integrated electronics
  • Security of DIY and bio-hacking implantables

Data Protection and Privacy

  • Genomic data security and privacy-preserving computation
  • Secure storage and transmission of biological research data
  • Security of bio-banks and genetic databases
  • Privacy risks in direct-to-consumer genetic testing
  • Anonymization techniques for biological datasets
  • Consent and governance frameworks for biological data sharing
  • Intellectual property protection in collaborative biological research

Biometric Security and Authentication

  • Cancelable biometrics and privacy-preserving authentication
  • Presentation attack detection (liveness detection)
  • Deepfake attacks on biometric systems
  • Multi-modal biometric fusion security
  • Secure storage of biometric templates

Neurotechnology Security

  • Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) vulnerabilities
  • Neural data privacy and integrity
  • Neuro-rights and cognitive liberty
  • Security of closed-loop neuromodulation systems
  • Authentication using neural signals

Threat Detection and Response

  • Anomaly detection in biological data streams and laboratory workflows
  • Forensic analysis techniques for cyber-bio incidents
  • Incident response protocols for biotechnology organizations
  • Attribution methodologies for attacks on biological infrastructure
  • Threat intelligence sharing for the bioeconomy

DNA Synthesis and Screening Security

  • Vulnerabilities in nucleic acid synthesis screening systems
  • Cryptographic protocols for DNA synthesis order verification
  • Advanced screening techniques resistant to AI-generated sequences
  • Secure multi-party computation for sequence analysis
  • Blockchain-based traceability for synthetic biological materials

Regulatory and Policy Frameworks

  • Cybersecurity requirements for biotechnology compliance
  • International cooperation on cyberbiosecurity standards
  • Risk assessment frameworks for bio-cyber systems
  • Ethics and dual-use considerations in cyberbiosecurity research
  • Legal and regulatory responses to cyberbiosecurity incidents
  • Regulation and security of DIY biology and biohacking

Case Studies and Threat Analysis

  • Analysis of real-world cyberbiosecurity incidents
  • Threat modeling for specific biological systems or organizations
  • Red team exercises and penetration testing in biotechnology environments
  • Economic impact analysis of cyberbiosecurity threats
  • Lessons learned from traditional cybersecurity applied to biological systems

Important Dates

All deadlines are 23:59:59 AoE (UTC-12)

  • Paper Registration Deadline: February 21, 2026
  • Paper Submission Deadline: January 30, 2026 February 28, 2026
  • Paper Notification of Acceptance: February 27, 2026 March 27, 2026
  • Presentation Abstracts Due: April 10, 2026
  • Camera-Ready Papers and Copyrights Due: April 10, 2026
  • Presentation Abstracts Notification: April 26, 2026
  • Workshop Date: May 21, 2026

Submission Instructions

Papers must be submitted via the HotCRP submission site.

Go to HotCRP Submission Site

Contribution Categories

  • Full Papers (6–10 pages): Original research contributions with comprehensive evaluation
  • Short Papers (up to 5 pages): Work-in-progress, preliminary results, or focused contributions
  • Industry Papers (up to 5 pages): Practical experiences, deployed solutions, or industrial case studies
  • Position Papers (up to 5 pages): Vision statements, outstanding challenges, or perspectives on future directions
  • Presentation Abstracts (up to 2 pages): Recent late-breaking news or prominent cyberbiosecurity papers accepted elsewhere

Submission Policies

  • Registration: At least one author of accepted papers must register for and attend the workshop to present the paper in person. Papers with remote presentations are possible but will receive a lower priority in the selection process.
  • Originality: All submitted papers must describe original work not substantially overlapping with papers published or under review at other venues. Papers must not be submitted to other venues while under review in CyberBio. Presentation abstracts may report findings that were published or are about to be published elsewhere.
  • Proceedings: Accepted papers will appear in the IEEE CS Press published proceedings. Accepted presentation abstracts will appear on the workshop website and will not be included in proceedings.
  • Double-blind Review: Authors may choose to anonymize their submissions for double-blind review.
  • Preprint Policy: Authors may submit manuscripts that are already available as preprints (e.g., on arXiv, bioRxiv, or institutional repositories) or publish preprints while their manuscript is under review.

Formatting Instructions

Page limits of submitted papers do not include the references and appendices. The total page length may not exceed 15 pages (full papers) or 8 pages (short, industry, and position papers). Presentation abstracts may not exceed 2 pages including references, figures, and tables. No appendices are allowed for presentation abstracts.

Papers must be formatted for US letter (not A4) size paper. All submissions must use the IEEE “compsoc” conference proceedings template. LaTeX submissions using the IEEE templates must use IEEEtran.cls version 1.8b with options “conference,compsoc.” That is, begin your LaTeX document with the line \documentclass[conference,compsoc]{IEEEtran}. See the IEEE Demo Template for Computer Society Conferences on Overleaf for an example. We are not aware of an MS Word template that matches this style.

Camera-Ready Submission Instructions

Accepted papers (excluding presentation abstracts) will appear in the proceedings of the 2026 47th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW).

Camera-ready papers and copyright forms must be submitted through the IEEE Conference Publishing Services (CPS) Author Kit portal by April 12, 2026.

Go to IEEE CPS Author Kit

Formatting Requirements

Your final camera-ready paper MUST be formatted using the IEEE templates. It is highly recommended that you proofread and check the layout of your paper before using PDF eXpress™ or submitting the final PDF.

PDF Validation via IEEE PDF eXpress®

All final PDF files must be validated through IEEE PDF eXpress to ensure compatibility with IEEE Xplore®.

Extended Versions

Accepted papers will be eligible for invitation to submit an extended version to Cyberbiosecurity Quarterly, a new Diamond Open Access journal published by New Prairie Press (Kansas State University Libraries) dedicated to advancing research at the intersection of cybersecurity and the bioeconomy.

Extended submissions should include at least ~20% new or updated material beyond the workshop paper and will undergo editorial and peer review, with particular emphasis on the novel contributions. Manuscripts meeting these criteria will be considered for an expedited review process, providing a streamlined pathway from workshop presentation to formal publication. As a Diamond Open Access journal, Cyberbiosecurity Quarterly is free to publish in and free to read.

Cyberbiosecurity Quarterly is the official journal of the Bioeconomy Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Contact

For questions regarding submissions or the workshop, please contact the Program Chairs:

Reviewers: see Information for Reviewers.