On the Security of a Popular Web Submission and Review Software (WSaR) for Cryptology Conferences

Most, if not all, conferences use an online system to handle paper submissions and reviews. Introduction of these systems has significantly facilitated the administration, submission and review process compared to traditional paper-based ones. However, it is crucial that these systems have strong resistance against Web attacks as they involve confidential data and privacy. Some submissions could be leading edge breakthroughs that authors do not wish to leak out and be subtly plagiarized. Also, security of the employed system will attract more submissions to conferences that use it and gives confidence of the quality that the conferences uphold. In this paper, we analyze the security of the Web-Submission-and-Review (WSaR) software - latest version 0.53 beta at the time of writing; developed by Shai Halevi from IBM Research. WSaR is currently in use by top cryptology conferences including Eurocrypt 2007 & 2008, Crypto 2007, and Asiacrypt 2007, annually sponsored by the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). We present detailed analysis on WSaR's security features. In particular, we first discuss the desirable security features that are designed into WSaR and what attacks these features defend against. Then, we discuss how some untreated security issues may lead to problems, and we show how to enhance WSaR security features to take these issues into consideration. Our results are the first known careful analysis of WSaR, or any type of online submission system for that matter

Comparison of Online Platforms for the Review Process of Conference Paper

[EN] Organizing conferences requires the consideration of several aspects, such as the choice of the most appropriate platform to manage the received papers or the conference location, among others. To this goal, we are going to compare some of the most important review platforms, which allow us to host our conferences. In recent years,new systems based on software applications have emerged. This software can be downloaded from the developer websites. These give us more options to choose from. Keeping in mind some of the most important review platforms, we are going to compare the services that each one offers, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, we are going to show several statistics about the use of these platforms during recent years. This work can help the conference organizers choose the most appropriate platform to manage their conference.Parra, L.; Sendra, S.; Ficarelli, S.; Lloret, J. (2013). Comparison of Online Platforms for the Review Process of Conference Paper. IARIA XPS Press. 16-22. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/191354162

Ten Simple Rules for organizing a non–real-time web conference

The present work describes the 100% virtual ATIDES (Avances en Tecnologı ´as, Innovacio ´n y Desafı ´os de la Educacio ´n Superior) conference that was held between October 15 and 31, 2018, sponsored by Universitat Jaume I (UJI), Spain. Online conferences like this have been the subject of some controversy in the field of education over the last decade. Indeed, we have found a few texts that are against them. One of these is [1], whose authors claim that “interaction is not enough” to ensure efficient simulation of face-to-face contact. However, the Canadian academic community (for instance, the Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University) is a strong advocate of online conferences (see [2,3]). Among other advantages, this kind of conference is “family-friendly,” i.e., they break barriers for researchers with family obligations [4], in particular many women [5]. In addition, these conferences overcome the drawback of parallel sessions at face-to-face conferences, at which participants must choose certain talks and miss others. Anderson and Anderson [6] even put forward environmental and economic arguments: “Transportation is a major contributor of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.” On the other hand, Abdullah [7] and Kear, Chetwynd, and Jefferis [8] look at the matter from another point of view that is also important: Social presence at online conferences

Privacy-supporting Cloud Computing by In-browser Key Translation

The appendix contains our response to the reviewers. Cloud computing means entrusting data to information systems that are managed by external parties on remote servers, in the “cloud”, raising new privacy and confidentiality concerns. We propose a general technique for designing cloud services that allows the cloud to see only encrypted data, while still facilitating some data-dependent computations. The technique is based on key translations and mixes in web browsers. We focus on a particular kind of software-as-a-service, namely, services that support applications, evaluations, and decisions. Such services include job application management, public tender management (e.g., for civil construction), and conference management. We identify the specific security and privacy risks that existing systems pose. We propose a protocol that addresses them, and forms the basis of a system that offers strong security and privacy guarantees. We express the protocol and its properties in the language of ProVerif, and prove that it does provide the intended properties. We describe an implementation of a particular instance of the protocol called ConfiChair, which is geared to the evaluation of papers submitted to conferences.

III Jornadas de Innovación Educativa: DIMEU: Herramientas software en educación secundaria y universidad

Actes de les III Jornades DIMEU celebrades a Castelló el 13 i 14 de juny de 2019Les Jornades d'Innovació Educativa es celebrancon la finalitat de conèixer les tendències educatives actuals que puguin ajudar-los a resoldre els reptes a què s'enfronten en l'actualitat i respondre a les necessitats que l'alumnat planteja, identificar eines digitals que poden millorar el procés d'ensenyament -aprenentatge en un entorn educatiu i compartir experiències i aprendre de casos a l'aula de docents espanyols i internacionals