ACM Transactions on Information and System Security

ACM Transactions on Information and System Security
Title	ACM Transactions on Information and System Security
Abbreviation	TISSEC
Discipline	Computer science; Information security
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Country	United States
History	1998–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Issn	1094-9224

ACM Transactions on Information and System Security is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal covering research in information security, computer security, and privacy. It publishes original research, surveys, and system descriptions that address secure systems, cryptography, intrusion detection, and policy frameworks. The journal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery and serves researchers affiliated with institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University.

History

The journal was established in 1998 amid growing academic interest from groups at National Institute of Standards and Technology, Bell Labs, RAND Corporation, Symantec Research Labs, and IBM Research. Early volumes coincided with milestones like the publication of the RSA (cryptosystem) refinements and standards from Internet Engineering Task Force working groups. Founding editors and contributors came from programs at Cornell University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, and Tsinghua University. During the 2000s the journal reflected transitions driven by events such as the publication of Advanced Encryption Standard deployments, responses to the 2003 Northeast blackout infrastructure concerns, and regulatory developments influenced by Sarbanes–Oxley Act discussions in corporate security. In the 2010s and 2020s it engaged with research trends from centers at Google Research, Microsoft Research, Yahoo! Research, NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography initiatives, and collaborations with labs at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Scope and Topics

The journal's scope spans cryptographic protocols influenced by work from Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman, and Ron Rivest legacies, system security inspired by projects at DARPA Information Innovation Office, and privacy engineering aligned with scholarship from IAPP practitioners and academics at Columbia University and New York University. Typical topics include applied cryptography informed by Elliptic-curve cryptography research, secure operating system designs tracing to Multics lineage, intrusion detection systems building on approaches from SRI International, and formal methods derived from Hoare logic and Z notation traditions. The journal also addresses network security challenges echoing work from Cisco Systems networks, mobile security concerns explored at Qualcomm, cloud security topics relevant to Amazon Web Services, and usable privacy studies connected to labs at Microsoft Research Cambridge and Facebook AI Research.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

Editorial leadership has featured academics and practitioners with affiliations to University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, University of Washington, Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and University of Toronto. The board draws reviewers from conferences such as ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, USENIX Security Symposium, Network and Distributed System Security Symposium, and Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium. Peer review processes mirror standards used by journals like IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and Communications of the ACM, employing double-blind review practices and editorial decisions informed by associate editors with backgrounds at HP Labs, Bell Labs Research, and national centers including European Network and Information Security Agency personnel.

Publication and Access Model

Published quarterly by the Association for Computing Machinery, the journal follows a subscription-based model with digital access through ACM Digital Library alongside institutional access used by universities such as Yale University, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania. It participates in ACM's author rights and licensing frameworks compatible with mandates from funders like the National Science Foundation and the Wellcome Trust where applicable. Special issues have been organized in coordination with workshops at RSA Conference, Black Hat USA, and invited collections linked to programs at ACM SIGSAC.

Impact and Reception

TISSEC has been cited in policy discussions at European Commission bodies and standards committees at International Organization for Standardization and Internet Engineering Task Force. Its articles have informed deployments at industry actors including Intel Corporation, AMD, Juniper Networks, and VMware. Scholars from Harvard University Law School and Stanford Law School have referenced its work when addressing legal aspects of cybersecurity legislation such as debates analogous to Computer Fraud and Abuse Act interpretations. The journal appears in indexing services alongside titles like Science, Nature Communications, and IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing.

Notable Papers and Contributions

Notable contributions published in the journal have advanced topics including authenticated data structures building on Merkle tree concepts, side-channel analysis related to research from Paul Kocher, formal verification case studies connected to SPARK (programming language), and scalable key-management approaches reflecting work by Clifford Cocks successors. Papers have influenced systems such as secure enclaves inspired by Intel SGX research, anonymity systems in the spirit of Tor (anonymity network), and privacy-preserving data analysis echoing techniques from Differential privacy pioneers. Cross-disciplinary impact includes citations in reports by World Economic Forum and technical briefings at United Nations cyber forums.

Category:Computer security journals Category:Association for Computing Machinery academic journals