About us

The 3rd International Workshop on Autonomous Cybersecurity (AutonomousCyber 2026), co‑located with ESORICS 2026 in Rome, brings together leading researchers and practitioners to explore the next frontier of AI‑driven, autonomous cyber defense systems. The workshop focuses on the shift from traditional automation to intelligent, self‑reliant security mechanisms, agentic AI systems, and proactive threat mitigation.

Important Dates

Wed, Jul 1, 2026
Submission Deadline
Mon, Jul 20, 2026
Author Notification
Sat, Aug 1, 2026
Camera-ready Submission

Paper Submission

Research Paper Submission Tracks

Cognitive models for enhancing threat intelligence
Principles and theory of self-learning cybersecurity systems
Advances in QML for proactive cyber defense
Human–machine teaming for cyber resilience
Formal models of autonomous defensive decision-making
Verification and assurance of agentic cyber defense behavior
Evaluation metrics for autonomy, reliability, and safety
AI-driven threat detection and mitigation algorithms
Development of simulators for testing autonomous security systems
Architectural innovations for adaptive and self-improving cybersecurity
Integration of autonomous defenses with large-scale networked and distributed systems
AI agents for continuous assurance and compliance
LLM-based reasoning for adaptive defense orchestration
Autonomous vulnerability discovery and patch synthesis
Benchmarks and datasets for evaluating autonomy in cybersecurity
Planning and tool-use in cyber defense agents
Memory, reasoning, and state tracking for security agents
Adversarial attacks against autonomous cyber agents
Guardrails and runtime monitors for autonomous security systems
AI-based automated patch management and incident response
Autonomous digital forensics and independent security investigations
Real-world implementations and lessons learned from deployed autonomous security solutions
Autonomous SOC operation and AI security copilots
Autonomous response in cyber-physical and critical infrastructure systems
Evaluation of autonomous systems in operational and adversarial environments
Regulatory challenges of deploying autonomous cybersecurity systems
Ethical considerations in self-adaptive AI-driven cyber defenses
Continuous compliance monitoring with AI-driven systems
Accountability and governance of action-taking AI defenders
Human oversight and escalation policies in autonomous defense
Safety, reliability, and trust frameworks for autonomous cybersecurity systems

Call for Papers Description

We solicit original, unpublished, and innovative research work relevant to the theme of this workshop. Submitted papers must not substantially overlap with previously published or currently under review papers for journals or conferences. The only accepted format for submission is PDF, and papers must be prepared using the Springer LNCS template, maximum 16 pages.

Committee

Workshop Organizers

Ali Dehghantanha

Canada Research Chair and Professor, University of Guelph, ON, Canada

Reza M. Parizi

Director of Decentralized Science Lab and Professor, Kennesaw State University, USA

Gregory Epiphaniou

Associate Professor of Security Engineering, University of Warwick, UK

Workshop Chairs

Ali Dehghantanha

University of Guelph, ON, Canada

Reza M. Parizi

Kennesaw State University, USA

Gregory Epiphaniou

University of Warwick, UK

Publication Chair

Abbas Yazdinejad

University of Regina, SK, Canada

Publicity Chair

Tooska Dargahi

Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

Tao Li

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Program Committee

Ehab Al-Shaer

Carnegie Mellon University, USA

Benjamin C. M. Fung

McGill University, Canada

Andy Applebaum

Apple Inc, USA

Melody Wolk

Apple Inc, USA

Patrick Dwyer

Apple Inc, USA

Vasilios Mavroudis

Alan Turing Institute, UK

Chris Hicks

Alan Turing Institute, UK

Z. Morley Mao

University of Michigan, USA

Derrick Sturisky

Quantum Computing Inc., USA

Mohammad Hamoudeh

King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia

Malka Halgamuge

RMIT University, Australia

Andrew Hamilton

Cybriant, USA

Alireza Jolafai

Flinders University, Australia

Vasilis Katos

Bournemouth University, UK

Ryan K. L. Ko

University of Queensland St Lucia, Australia

Georgios Loukas

University of Greenwich, UK

Haider Al-Khateeb

Aston University, UK

Carsten Maple

University of Warwick, UK

Mohammad S. Khan

East Tennessee State University, USA

Nick Pitropakis

Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland

Ahmad Ridley

Laboratory for Advanced Cybersecurity Research, USA

Ali Safaa Sadiq Al Shakarchi

Nottingham Trent University, UK

Jeff Schwartzentruber

eSentire Inc, ON, Canada

Andre Weimerskirch

Lear Corporation, USA

Kaiwen Zhang

Ecole de technologie superieure, Canada

Xiaojie Zhu

KAUST, Saudi Arabia