Winning Paper | Honorable Mention | Review Team
The tenth NSA Competition for Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper recognizes the best scientific cybersecurity paper published in 2021. Papers were nominated between December 15, 2021 through April 15, 2022 and 28 nominations were received.
Winning Paper
The winning paper selected is Verifying Hyperproperties with Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA) by Leslie Lamport and Fred B. Schneider, from Microsoft Research and Cornell University respectively, answers a key question: How can you ensure that a computer algorithm is correct? The paper was published at the 2021 IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium, the paper states that the myriad security tools available typically examine specific pieces of code rather than an algorithm itself. In lieu of this approach, Lamport and Schneider propose that in order to verify algorithm (and potentially system) accuracy, one could look at the theoretic and practical breakthroughs.
Microsoft Research
Cornell University
Honorable Mention
Receiving honorable mention was the paper Defensive Technology Use by Political Activists during the Sudanese Revolution Alaa Daffalla, Lucy Simko, Tadayoshi Kohno, and Alexandru G. Bardas, of Cornell University, George Washington University, the University of Washington, and the University of Kansas respectively. This paper Their paper investigates the practices of 13 Sudanese activists and how technology can be used in times of political strife. The authors examine computer and privacy needs while operating under an oppressive regime. This paper was also presented at the 2021 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.
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Review Team
NSA Competition Leads:
- Gilbert Herrera - NSA Director of Research
- Dr. Adam Tagert - Science of Security, NSA Laboratory for Advanced Cybersecurity Research
The following individuals served as distinguished experts for the 10th annual competition:
| DR. WHITFIELD DIFFIE, Cybersecurity Advisor DR. DAN GEER, In-Q-Tel DR. ERIC GROSSE, Cybersecurity Advisor PAUL KOCHER, Independent Researcher DR. JOHN LAUNCHBURY, Galois, Inc CARRIE GATES, Bank of America |
DR. SEAN PEISERT, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory LAWRENCE BERKELEY, National Laboratory MR. PHIL VENABLES, Google DR. ARUN VISHWANATH, Cybersecurity Advisor MS. MARY ELLEN ZURKO, MIT Lincoln Laboratory RADIA PERLMAN, DELL EMC. |
About the Competition
The Best Scientific Cybersecurity Paper Competition is sponsored yearly by NSA's Research Directorate and reflects the Agency's desire to increase scientific rigor in the cybersecurity field. This competition was established to recognize current research that exemplifies the development of scientific rigor in cybersecurity research. SoS is a broad enterprise, involving both theoretical and empirical work across a diverse set of topics. While there can only be one best paper, no single paper can span the full breadth of SoS topics. Nevertheless, work in all facets of security science is both needed and encouraged.