IEEE Security & Privacy (S&P)’s mission is to be the best source of reliable, useful, peer-reviewed information for those aiming to understand how systems, data, and people are protected in a world of rapid technology evolution. This bimonthly magazine publishes articles that have clarity and context, targeting a wide audience who understand technology, from developers to executives, managers to policy-makers, and researchers interested in problems with practical impact. Peer-reviewed articles and columns by real-world experts illuminate all aspects of the field, including systems, attacks and defenses, software security, applied cryptography, usability, forensics, big data, ethics, biometrics, and more, with special issues focusing on targeted topics as well as issues devoted to key events and conferences.

S&P is copublished by the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Reliability Society. Technical cosponsors are the IEEE Signal Processing Society and IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society. S&P accepts commercial and classified advertisements. S&P‘s 2023 impact factor is 2.9. Learn about the magazine’s history by exploring the S&P index site, curated by a volunteer.

S&P aims to provide a unique combination of research articles, case studies, tutorials, and departments covering diverse aspects of security and dependability of computer-based systems, including legal and ethical issues, privacy concerns, tools to help secure information, methods for development and assessment of trustworthy systems, analysis of vulnerabilities and attacks, trends and new developments, pedagogical and curricular issues in educating the next generation of security professionals, secure operating systems and applications, security issues in wireless networks, design and test strategies for secure and survivable systems, and cryptology, and other topics of interest to a general, technically oriented readership. Topics include, but are not limited to:

    Network Security
    Software and Hardware Security
    Systems Security
    Embedded Security
    Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
    Data Analytics for Security and Privacy
    Usable Security and Privacy
    Physical and Human Security
    Wireless and Mobile Security
    Security Foundations
    Security Economics
    Security and Privacy Policies
    Integrated Security Design Methods
    Critical Infrastructures
    Sociotechnical Security and Privacy
    Social Networks and Computing
    Surveillance
    Cybercrime and Forensics
    Developer and User Training
    Real-World Cryptography
    Intrusion Detection
    Malware

Scope

IEEE Security & Privacy is the premier magazine of the IEEE Computer and Reliability Societies for informing their members about recent and forthcoming advances in information technology pertaining to security, privacy, and dependability. The magazine seeks creative and novel perspectives on industry practices, research directions, and policy and regulatory matters. In addition to feature articles, special and themed issues, columns, and departments, experts from our community of interest provide insightful commentary on current issues and paradigm shifts via virtual roundtables and podcasts.

In particular, IEEE Security & Privacy looks for articles that identify key research problems for improving computing defenses and for developing more secure and privacy-aware systems, as well as articles that teach readers about emerging technologies that show promise in such areas. IEEE Security & Privacy encompasses a broad range of topics regarding security and privacy and features both peer-reviewed articles as well as departments and columns, which describe perspectives on hot topics from academic and industry leaders in the field.

Special Issue on Gender and Sexuality in Online Safety
Submission Date: 2024-12-16

A growing body of research in security and privacy focuses on threats and defenses that intersect with gender and sexuality (both sexual identity and sexual behavior or abuse). Existing research on threats includes a focus on digitally mediated intimate partner violence, image-based sexual abuse, and online hate & harassment. Existing research on defenses includes work on help-seeking, clinical computer security, nudity, and grooming detection as well as work on how some defenses (e.g., client-side scanning) threaten rights to free expression via secure communication. 

This special issue calls for original empirical research results and commentary focused on gender and sexuality as lenses through which to investigate emerging issues in security and privacy. Incorporating and building on individual approaches, sociotechnical and societal perspectives of gender and sexuality can improve efforts to promote security and privacy for all people. We embrace work that wrestles with difficult challenges in this space such as the balance between mitigating harm and protecting sexual expression; how to define safety in the intersection of gender and sexuality; and navigating the incentives, abilities, or responsibilities of diverse stakeholders to establish enduring safety.

We welcome pieces that provoke discussion, inspire new research agendas, systematize existing bodies of knowledge, critique existing approaches, and/or offer original case studies or research on the following topics:

    Gender and sexuality (both sexual identity and sexual behavior or abuse) in relation to online safety (and privacy and security) 
    Feminist, queer, and critical theory within online safety research
    Novel research methods, approaches or design perspectives that center gender and sexuality in online safety (and privacy and security) research
    Research ethics and responsibility when conducting online safety research in relation to gender and sexuality
    Technical and socio-technical mechanisms to mitigate gendered and sexuality-related online safety harms 
    Consideration of emerging technologies including AI generation, AR/VR, and haptics from a gender and sexuality perspective 
    Behaviors, attitudes, perceptions, stereotypes, needs, or threat models related to (1) marginalization or privilege by gender or sexual identity and/or (2) situational risk or behavior as a result of gender or sexuality (e.g., in relation to intimate content) 
    Policy related to any of the above, e.g., the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, the EU’s Digital Services Act, Australia’s Online Safety Act, Canada’s Bill-63 – Online Harms Act, the U.S.’s Executive Order on AI Safety or Call to Action on Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery