ACSAC 2020: Furthering the Quest to Tackle Hard Problems and Find Practical Solutions

Danfeng (Daphne) Yao

Abstract

The Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) 2020 marked the 36th edition of ACSAC. The vision of Marshall Abrams, a beloved founder and tireless organizer of ACSAC, is to take hard problems and find practical solutions. In September 2020, Marshall died of heart failure at the age of 79. Prior to his passing, he was actively working on signing a virtual meeting vendor for the conference. As Charles Payne, ACSAC local arrangements chair, said during the tribute, Marshall asked us to focus on solving hard problems, hard problems that require the combined effort of government, industry, and academia to address; and Marshall insisted on practical solutions. With rampaging ransomware and zero-day supply-chain attacks tearing through critical national and computing infrastructures, Marshall’s longtime vision seems more relevant today than ever.