ACSAC: Annual Computer Security Applications Conference

The Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) is an internationally recognized, peer-reviewed cybersecurity conference dedicated to applied information security. Unlike academic venues that prioritize purely theoretical cryptography or abstract mathematical proofs, ACSAC emphasizes practical security systems, real-world vulnerability analysis, defensive system deployments, and enterprise transition. By bringing together researchers from academia, government agencies, and industry practitioners, the venue serves as a vital bridge in advancing applied what is cybersecurity across research environments.

What It Is

Founded to advance the practical state of cybersecurity, the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) provides a forum where researchers present vetted technological solutions to pressing operational security problems. Operating under IEEE technical co-sponsorship, ACSAC convenes annually each December. The conference attracts an average attendance of well over 200 security specialists, with approximately half of technical paper submissions originating from institutions outside the United States.

A defining hallmark of ACSAC is its emphasis on operational relevance. Research presented at the conference directly influences defensive protocols in cloud computing, industrial control systems (ICS), mobile platforms, operating system kernels, and hardware architectures. The venue’s practical focus also supports institutional compliance frameworks, helping universities and research laboratories meet federal operational security mandates like CMMC compliance for research institutions.

Who Runs It and What It Covers

ACSAC is governed by an independent volunteer Steering Committee composed of seasoned cybersecurity leaders from research universities, national laboratories, and commercial cybersecurity research divisions. An annually appointed Organizing Committee and Program Committee manage peer review, workshop curation, artifact evaluation, and conference operations.

Conference Tracks and Submission Formats

To accommodate diverse stages of research and practical engineering, ACSAC features several structured tracks:

• Technical Track (Research Papers): Rigorously peer-reviewed original research papers detailing novel defensive mechanisms, empirical measurement studies, or systematic vulnerability assessments. All submissions undergo double-blind peer review.
• Cybersecurity Artifacts Competition & Evaluation: A specialized track assessing the open availability, reproducibility, and functional quality of code, binaries, datasets, and testbeds associated with submitted research. Prominent open-source security tools—such as the angr binary analysis framework, SGX-Step enclave dissection platform, and the Tranco top-sites ranking dataset—have received top recognition in this competition, reinforcing best practices in reproducibility infrastructure workflows containers code sharing.
• Case Studies Track: Practical experience reports documenting real-world deployment challenges, enterprise incident responses, or operational trade-offs encountered when applying theoretical security controls in production networks.
• Workshops and Hands-on Training: Specialized full-day workshops covering emergent sub-disciplines, including the Cyber Security Experimentation and Test (CSET) workshop, Learning from Authoritative Security Experiment Results (LASER), and biomedical security forums (BioAISS).
• Panels and Works in Progress (WIP): Interactive discussions addressing contentious policy or technological challenges, alongside short presentations of early-stage research findings.

Core Technical Scope

ACSAC solicits papers spanning software security, network defense, embedded devices, and privacy engineering. Primary topical areas include:

• Vulnerability discovery, automated binary analysis, and fuzzing methodologies.
• Security of machine learning and large language models (LLMs), including adversarial poisoning and inference privacy.
• Industrial control systems (ICS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) security.
• Trusted execution environments (TEEs), confidential computing virtual machines, and hardware security primitives.
• Mobile platform security, firmware analysis, and Internet of Things (IoT) defense.
• Intellectual property protection, secure code provenance, and compliance with open source software licensing tech transfer rules.

How to Search or Use It

Researchers, authors, and practitioners interact with ACSAC either by consulting its open publication archive or by submitting research through its conference management system. The workflow below details how to navigate the platform effectively:

Step 1: Browse the ACSAC Open Proceedings Archive

ACSAC provides an open digital archive accessible directly from its website (https://www.acsac.org/archive/). The archive organizes past conferences chronologically, providing direct links to final papers, slide decks, keynote recordings, and recognized artifacts without requiring a paid subscription.

Step 2: Inspect Artifact Badges and Download Research Tools

When reviewing published ACSAC papers, look for the “Distinguished Paper with Artifacts” designation. These records include links to public GitHub repositories, Docker containers, and Zenodo deposits where authors have preserved reproducible code and evaluation scripts.

Step 3: Review Annual Call for Papers (CFP) Deadlines

Prospective authors should consult the Submissions portal (https://www.acsac.org/submissions/) early in the academic year. Technical paper submission deadlines typically fall in late spring or early summer, followed by author rebuttal phases and artifact evaluation milestones.

Step 4: Prepare Submissions Under Double-Blind Formatting Rules

Manuscripts must strictly adhere to the IEEE conference format guidelines, using standard LaTeX or Word templates. Submissions must be fully anonymized: author names, institutional affiliations, acknowledgments, and self-identifying citations must be redacted or cited in the third person.

Step 5: Submit Papers via OpenConf

ACSAC manages paper uploads, author disclosures, and reviewer assignment using the OpenConf submission management portal (accessible at https://www.openconf.org/acsac/). Authors log in, declare technical topic areas, register conflicts of interest (COI) with program committee members, and upload PDF manuscripts.

Step 6: Participate in Author Rebuttals and Artifact Review

Following initial review cycles, authors receive reviewer comments and are granted a designated window to submit a formal response clarifying technical misunderstandings. Conditionally accepted papers opt into the artifact evaluation track to obtain official reproducibility badges prior to publication.

Strengths and Limits

Evaluating ACSAC as a publishing venue requires weighing its distinct strengths against the institutional expectations of computer science departments:

Key Strengths

• Unmatched Industry and Government Bridge: ACSAC actively fosters participation from defense labs, federal agencies, and industrial practitioners. Presentations frequently lead to pilot adoptions and technology transfer opportunities.
• Rigorous Artifact Evaluation: The Cybersecurity Artifacts Competition establishes a gold standard for software and dataset reproducibility, ensuring that published tools are usable by independent researchers.
• Open Access and High Visibility: Final proceedings are indexed in major databases—including IEEE Xplore, the ACM Digital Library, and DBLP—while maintaining open access copies on the conference archive.
• Support for Emerging Scholars: ACSAC operates a robust student conferenceship program that provides registration and travel stipends for students presenting work or attending workshops.

Limits

• Applied Versus Theoretical Ranking Perception: While ACSAC is highly regarded in applied systems engineering, some university tenure committees prioritize the traditional “Big Four” academic conferences (IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, USENIX Security, and NDSS) when evaluating theoretical or mathematical computer science profiles.
• Focused Conference Scale: With attendance centered around 200 to 300 delegates, the venue offers deep technical immersion but smaller networking breadth compared to multi-thousand-attendee mega-conferences.

Alternatives and Venue Comparison

Researchers selecting a publication target for applied cybersecurity work often compare ACSAC against peer tier-one and tier-two security venues. The table below outlines key institutional characteristics:

Conference Venue	Sponsoring Organization	Primary Research Focus	Review Model	Open Proceedings Availability
ACSAC	Independent Steering / IEEE CS Co-sponsor	Applied computer security, systems transition, artifacts	Double-blind with author rebuttal	Open archive on ACSAC.org & indexed in IEEE/ACM
USENIX Security	USENIX Association	Systems security, vulnerability analysis, applied privacy	Double-blind, rolling deadlines	Fully open access via USENIX portal
IEEE S&P (Oakland)	IEEE Computer Society	Theoretical foundations, cryptographic protocols, systems	Double-blind, rolling review	IEEE Xplore (paywalled/open access hybrid)
ACM CCS	ACM SIGSAC	Broad security: cryptography, data privacy, network defense	Double-blind, dual-deadline cycles	ACM Digital Library (Open Reserve / Open Access)
NDSS Symposium	Internet Society (ISOC)	Network and distributed systems security	Double-blind peer review	Fully open access via Internet Society

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ACSAC?

ACSAC stands for the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference. It is an internationally recognized, peer-reviewed computer security conference focusing on practical, applied cybersecurity systems, operational defenses, and technological transition across academia, industry, and government.

Where and when is ACSAC held?

ACSAC convenes annually in December. For example, IEEE ACSAC 2026 takes place December 7-11, 2026, in Los Angeles, California, USA.

How are papers reviewed at ACSAC?

ACSAC employs a rigorous double-blind peer-review process conducted by an international Program Committee. Authors submit anonymized manuscripts, participate in an author rebuttal phase to address reviewer questions, and may submit their tools to the Cybersecurity Artifacts Competition to verify software reproducibility.

Are ACSAC proceedings open access?

Yes. While ACSAC papers are indexed in formal repositories such as IEEE Xplore and the ACM Digital Library, the conference maintains a comprehensive, publicly accessible archive on its official website (acsac.org/archive/) containing published papers, presentation slides, and artifact links free of charge.

Sources

• IEEE ACSAC Official Website: https://www.acsac.org/ — verified 2026-11-08
• ACSAC Paper Submissions Guidelines: https://www.acsac.org/2026/submissions/papers/ — verified 2026-11-08
• ACSAC Conference Archive and Proceedings: https://www.acsac.org/archive/ — verified 2026-11-08
• ACSAC Operating FAQs: https://www.acsac.org/faq/ — verified 2026-11-08
• DBLP Computer Science Bibliography (ACSAC Index): https://dblp.org/db/conf/acsac/index.html — verified 2026-11-08