JoWUA SI 2021 : Special Issue on Multidisciplinary Solutions to Modern Cybersecurity Challenges

Modern network and computing scenarios are characterized by a complex continuum spread across a variety of technological and administrative domains. For instance, cloud infrastructures are used to offload personal devices, wireless/4G/5G links allow mobility, and low-power communications and edge/fog computing enable to integrate cyber-physical systems in the daily routine. Besides, highinteraction and smart services span across multiple areas, e.g., product vendors, telcos, proprietary Software-as-a-Service deployments, as well as several nations (possibly with incompatible laws). In this perspective, the Internet is a collection of IoT devices, traditional hosts, wearable and mobile devices as well as individuals, which is responsible of producing a huge load of sensitive data. At the same time, the attack surface is magnified by such a heterogeneity and new reconnaissance techniques; attacks and weaponization of threats targeting both the cyber and physical security of users and nodes are released on a daily basis. As a consequence, assessing the cybersecurity of modern ICT platforms and frameworks requires a multi/interdisciplinary effort, and the technological background must be completed with knowledge borrowed from different fields such as behavioral sciences, sociology, criminology, investigations and law. In this vein, the European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2020) is the venue for the exchange of information on cybersecurity and where to present the most cutting-edge research on the sophisticated mix of technologies characterizing modern ICT services. 

This Special Issue aims at mixing extended versions of papers presented at EICC and papers accepted from an “open call” dealing with solutions, problems, defense mechanisms, forensics issues, threat analysis and development of countermeasures that leverage or require a multidisciplinary approach.