ONLINE GAMING is becoming a big part of our culture. Not only are virtual worlds, virtual economies, and virtual interactions compelling, they’re also lucrative. The online gaming industry is growing at very healthy clip—online gaming itself rakes in over US$1.3 billion dollars a year in monthly subscription fees, not including revenue from the client software or add-ons. In fact, virtual economies have grown to such an extent that some have eclipsed the real-world economies of some countries (measured in terms of per capita GDP). To create and evolve these games, game developers continue to push the limits of all facets of computer science—from graphics to massively distributed Internetworked systems. Recent developments in online gaming, especially surrounding virtual worlds, directly impact other fields of study including psychology, physics, law, and film studies.

Of course, these innovations come at a price. New methods of cheating regularly emerge, some with serious economic impact. Well-worn game-hacking techniques and communities are on the rebound. Most recently, architectural weaknesses in online game clients have come to light, proving just how prone to exploit client-side functionality is. The security implications of online gaming are the topic of a special issue of IEEE Security & Privacy magazine. We seek feature articles with an in-depth coverage of topics relating to online gaming and security. Among potential topics are:

• Trust boundaries and client-side functionality issues
• Legal issues
• Social issues
• Virtual worlds and their economies
• Electronic crime, crimeware, and money laundering
• Education and pedagogy
• Bug exploits
• Botting
• Modding

Our list is neither complete nor closed. Authors are encouraged to submit articles that explore other aspects of security and online gaming. Submissions will be subject to peer-review resulting in refereed scientific papers. Articles should be understandable to a broad audience of people interested in security and privacy. The writing should be down-to-earth, practical, and original. Authors should not assume that the audience will have specialized experience in a particular subfield (including gaming). All accepted articles will be professionally copyedited according to the IEEE Computer Society style guide.

CALL FOR PAPERS: ONLINE GAMING SECURITY

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT: 5 SEPT. 2008

GUEST EDITORS:

GARY MCGRAW (CIGITAL)

MING CHOW (TUFTS UNIVERSITY)

SUBMIT A MANUSCRIPT: WWW.COMPUTER.ORG/PORTAL/PAGES/SECURITY/AUTHOR.XML