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Submission deadline: 01 June 2026
Publication: January/February 2027
The rapid evolution of computing and communication technologies has rendered them nearly ubiquitous, underpinning the global economy, critical infrastructure, and national security. However, as these systems scale in complexity, they are outpacing our collective capacity to keep them safe and resilient.
The 2025 National Academies report Cyber Hard Problems: Focused Steps Toward a Resilient Digital Future characterized cyber hard problems as challenges that are “well defined, and progress toward their solution would significantly improve the safety and resiliency of cyber and cyber-enabled systems.” These challenges are particularly resistant to solutions due to a combination of technical difficulty, misaligned economic incentives, and complex human-system interactions. Hard problems are also distinct from those whose solutions would be beneficial but would not meaningfully improve resiliency and problems that are not solved by money or technology alone.
For the purposes of this special issue, a hard problem is not merely a difficult technical challenge or a persistent threat. Submissions must explicitly address why the problem is "hard" by identifying the specific collision of technical complexity, misaligned incentives, and human/organizational friction that has prevented a solution to date. We are looking for work that addresses the "why" of the deadlock as much as the "how" of the solution.
This special issue seeks contributions that advance the understanding of, or demonstrate meaningful progress against, cyber hard problems. We welcome submissions across a broad spectrum: original research presenting novel methods, tools, or findings; practice and experience reports offering lessons from real-world deployments; policy analyses examining regulatory, economic, or institutional approaches. There will be a separate category for position papers presenting bold, evidence-based proposals for unconventional solutions.
We are particularly interested in work that identifies barriers to solving hard problems and proposes actionable ways to remove them. While the NASEM report provides a useful framework, we also encourage submissions that identify and characterize hard problems not captured in that report, as well as contributions offering international perspectives on cyber resilience challenges and approaches. Work that bridges disciplinary boundaries, including connecting technical research with human behavior, organizational dynamics, or policy implications, is especially welcome.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
For author information and guidelines on submission criteria, please visit the Author Information page. As stated in the Author Information, peer-reviewed articles should run between 4,900 to 7,200 words, including all main body, abstract, keyword, bibliography, biography, and table text. The word count should include 250 words for each table and figure. There should be no more than 15 references. The abstract word limit is 50 words. Please submit full papers through the IEEE Author Portal system, and be sure to select the special-issue or special-section name. Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts, to the IEEE Author Portal. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a single-anonymous peer review.
In addition to submitting your paper to IEEE Security & Privacy, you are also encouraged to upload the data related to your paper to IEEE DataPort. IEEE DataPort is IEEE's data platform that supports the storage and publishing of datasets while also providing access to thousands of research datasets. Uploading your dataset to IEEE DataPort will strengthen your paper and will support research reproducibility. Your paper and the dataset can be linked, providing a good opportunity for you to increase the number of citations you receive. Data can be uploaded to IEEE DataPort prior to submitting your paper or concurrent with the paper submission. Thank you!
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