4th CCS 1997

Message from General Chairs 

Gruezi Mitenand! Welcome to the Fourth ACM Conference on Computer and
Communications Security. This Conference continues what has already
become a traditional series of successful events started back in
November 1993, in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Dorothy Denning and Raye
Pyle provided critical support at the beginning. Ravi Ganesan and Ravi
Sandhu skillfully and tirelessly organized the Second and Third
Conferences, Fall 1994 again in Fairfax, and Spring 1996 in New Delhi,
India, where we had an enthusiastic and well-attended event. For the
fourth edition, we are delighted to welcome you to Zurich,
Switzerland, in the heart of Europe. Europeans have always made a
strong contribution to past meetings, and Europe is home to many
active researchers in the field, from Ireland to Israel (admittedly
stretching the geographical borders of the continent where
convenient).

The Conference has established a tradition of emphasizing the
practical and commercial aspects of computer and communications
security, and we hope to do justice to that tradition and to our
predecessors by offering you another successful meeting around a rich
and interesting program.

New this year is the decision to offer a whole day of tutorials along
two parallel tracks, one on the more basic principles of security, the
other on the more practical aspects. Each track offers two half-day
sessions, and attendees are of course welcome to switch tracks in the
course of the day as it suits their needs. The idea behind those
tutorials-beyond their obvious financial advantages-is that the world
is finally coming to realize the importance of well thought-through
security measures to protect today's expanding open networks, and a
huge pent-up demand exists for education in the area, which we can
help satisfy by enhancing general awareness of the subject.

Before letting you enjoy the technical program, we would like to thank
many dedicated individuals for their contributions to making this
event a success: First and foremost we want to thank the chairs of the
Program Committee, Li Gong and Clifford Neuman, as well as all members
of the Committee and indeed all authors who submitted papers for their
lion's share of what makes this Conference what it is, by providing
high-quality content. Content without a venue would however not be as
easy to enjoy. Our next thanks thus go to Harry Rudin, who has looked
after all local arrangements in a very creative and effective way. We
also thank Ravi Sandhu and Ravi Ganesan for their participation on the
Steering Committee and the other Committee members and past chairs of
this event for their continued support and advice in helping us
maintain the spirit of the Conference while adapting its shape to the
changing times. We are also indebted to Mike Reiter for the publicity
he provided for the event, Tsutomu Matsumoto for handling the
publication of these Proceedings, and Jacques Stern for chairing the
Awards Committee.

Last but not least we thank the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory for its
generous sponsorship of the event.

Richard Graveman
Principal Consultant
Bellcore, USA

Phil Janson 
Manager, IT Solutions Dept. 
IBM Zurich Research Laboratory