Artificial Intelligence Applications in Next Generation Communication Infrastructures Security

Dear Colleagues,

As increasingly more daily activities are digitalized, computer systems and their underlying communication networks are becoming decentralized and ubiquitous, with their attack surfaces being greatly increased. The management of security, privacy, and trust is becoming all the more challenging.

In this context, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) emerge as promising technologies in tackling these challenges. AI and ML have seen great progress in the last few years. Advanced, more accurate algorithms, more efficient implementations, and deployments on a wide range of applications have improved the performance and effectiveness of several traditional and novel computerized systems. As AI and ML capabilities are integrated into smart devices, they enable novel applications but also advanced cyber defenses. The latter now cover the whole cyber security lifecycle from training, analysis, and design, to the development of accurate forecasting, protection mechanisms, as well as incident response, mitigation, and restoration approaches.

Nevertheless, and in parallel to the above, several additional challenges will have to be addressed, stemming from the evolution of computing and communication infrastructure, including the shift to 5G networks: providing end-to-end protection and security/privacy properties, supporting (semi-)autonomous operation and self-configuration, fortifying trusted information and resource sharing, preserving the dependability of massively generated network traffic with heterogeneous particularities, offering fast identification of new threats and open vulnerabilities. Therefore, due to the sheer complexity of modern systems and networks that must be secured and the ever-increasing volumes of sophisticated cyber-attacks, it is becoming imperative to provide effective management of the associated cyber security risks in organizations and enterprises across the various vertical domains.

Motivated by the above, we invite submissions of full research and survey papers on topics related to AI, ML, Next Generation Communications and Cyber Security.

Dr. George Hatzivasilis
Prof. Dr. Sotiris Ioannidis
Dr. Konstantinos Fysarakis
Dr. Nikolaos Papadakis
Guest Editors

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• AI-enhanced system analysis and design
• asset management
• control effectiveness
• threat exposure
• breach risk prediction
• AI security by design
• forecast
• predictive intelligence for security and privacy management
• malware analysis
• bot identification
• AI-based protection mechanisms
• AI-driven defenses
• secure and dependable autonomous systems
• smart device security
• AI-driven incident response
• moving target defenses (MTDs)
• reputation- and trust-based computing
• novel AI applications
• cloud-based AI
• machine learning and blockchaining
• 5G and novel IoT environments
• COVID-19 impact on cyber security
• cyber ranges and security training
• leveraging AI for enhanced trust in vertical domains (e.g., smart agriculture, smart manufacturing, and healthcare)