the 3rd INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MODELING FOR CYBERSECURITY - EDITION 2026
Semantic Shields 3: The 3rd International Workshop on Modeling for Cybersecurity is an event focusing on theoretical aspects and practical applications of conceptual models and ontologies to cybersecurity. The exact date will be decided, but it will be between 21 and 25 September 2026.
Semantic Shields 3 will take place in Vitória, the capital of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, co-located with the 16th edition of the International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS), the flagship conference of the International Association of Ontology and its Applications (IAOA).
We are working to bring keynote presentations, workshop presentations, and an interactive panel session with industry experts.
Cybersecurity, which concerns both human and technological aspects, refers to a set of techniques used to protect the integrity of networks, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access. With the spread of systems and applications, attacks continue to grow in sophistication, with attackers using an ever-expanding variety of tactics such as social engineering, malware, and ransomware. To reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against exploitation, new methods and technologies are emerging. Formal methods, in particular ontologies, constitute an effective approach to mitigate the incompleteness and ambiguity of security directives and to semantically characterize security stakeholders, ranging from offensive techniques to compliance, vulnerability, encryption, data protection, authentication, confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The “Semantic Shields: International Workshop on Modeling for Cybersecurity” aims to bring together cybersecurity experts, conceptual modelers, and ontologists, from scholars to practitioners, to develop applications, methods, and tools impacting the cybersecurity domain.
Topics of Interest
The workshop topics include, but are not limited to:
- Novel conceptual models or ontologies of cybersecurity or its subtopics (networks, cloud security, phishing attacks, legal issues, etc.)
- Novel knowledge graphs (RDF, OWL, or other semantic technologies) of cybersecurity domains or for cybersecurity purposes (say, risk assessment).
- Systematic literature reviews that identify gaps concerning the applications of conceptual models or ontologies for cybersecurity purposes.
- Showcase applications and use cases of new or existing cybersecurity ontologies or conceptual models.
- Early works are welcome as well as the presentation of mature published works.
Important Dates
All deadlines are Anywhere on Earth (AoE = UTC-12h)
- Abstract submission (optional): 27 May 2026
- Full paper submission: 3 June 2026
- Author notification: Within 15 July 2026
- Workshop date: One day between 21 and 25 September 2026 (to be announced)
- Camera-ready submission: 31 July 2026
Submission Guidelines
The workshop welcomes submissions of full papers, short papers, practitioner reports, and presentations of published works. The respective lengths are:
- Full papers: 10-14 pages (research papers)
- Short papers: 5-9 pages (research-in-progress papers, practitioner reports)
- Presentations of peer-reviewed published works: One-page abstract with a reference to the published work.
(Page number includes references)
All accepted papers (except for the abstracts of published works) will be published in the Joint Ontology Workshops (JOWO) proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper must register and participate in the workshop.
Submissions must adhere to the one-column CEUR template. General information on CEUR proceedings can be found here:
The direct link to the LaTeX template is at Latex (the only acceptable format). We do not accept submissions in docx.
Submissions need to be uploaded on EasyChair as a single PDF: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fois2026.
Authors of accepted papers must provide the original source file and submit the author agreement form.
Contributions that include semantic artifacts, methodologies, software, etc, need to adhere to the FAIR guidelines.
All contributions (except for the abstracts of published works) to JOWO workshops will be published in a joint CEUR proceedings volume. For comparison, check out some previous publications:
- JOWO 2025: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-4176/
- JOWO 2024: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3882/
- JOWO 2023: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3637/
- JOWO 2022: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3249/
- JOWO 2021: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2969/
- JOWO 2020: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2708/
- JOWO 2019: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2518/
- JOWO 2018: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2205/
- JOWO 2017: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2050/
- JOWO 2016: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1660/
- JOWO 2015: https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1517/
Organization
- Ítalo Oliveira (University of Twente)
- Daniele Francesco Santamaria (University of Catania)
- Gal Engelberg (Accenture Labs Israel, University of Haifa)
- Gianpietro Castiglione (University of Catania)
- Giampaolo Bella (University of Catania)
Disclaimer
We ask the members of the FOIS community to pay close attention to phishing and scam attempts. Please follow only trusted sources for information about FOIS 2026 and JOWO 2026:
- This website is the only official Semantic Shields 3 (edition 2026) website.
- This is the only official FOIS 2026 website.
- The IAOA official website
- The IAOA page on LinkedIn
If you identify a suspicious source of information or a potential case of phishing related to FOIS or JOWO, please report it to info@iaoa.org.