Call for Papers

Beyond soliciting research into cybercrime that inflicts financial losses, as the symposium has since 2006, eCrime 2026’s chairs are particularly interested in papers that address challenges in: cyber-physical systems and operational technologies; artificial intelligence; and the interaction between different system layers (such as socio-technical systems) that are employed or abused by cybercriminals for profit – and for advancement of larger criminal enterprises.

Solicited Topics Consonant With eCrime 2026’s Theme Include:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) as criminal co-conspirator and defensive collaborator, such as:

Malicious AI agents employed to perform enhanced malware polymorphism, agentic spearphishing, reconnaissance, etc.

Development and maintenance of criminal co-pilots and the future of human-machine teaming, including hybridized human-crimebot cyber gangs.

Are malicious AI tools lowering the skills barrier to commit more advanced cybercrimes?

Adversarial AI (attacks directly against AIs and machine learning systems) as it relates to the furtherance of cybercrime or cyber-physical cybercrime — especially agents employed in security operations

Defensive AI Agents deployed as cybersecurity operations managers and (autonomous and semi-autonomous) counter-cybercrime managers

Design, deployment and assessment of multi-agent environments (MAEs) for enhancing resilience of infrastructure and systems to cybercrime

Design, deployment and assessment of defences related to AI systems themselves (jailbreaks, injections, etc.)

Actual, emerging or potential risks from AI systems deployed to animate cybercrimes against people, operational systems, IoT technologies, or physical spaces and objects

Abuse of cyber-physical systems and operational technologies and downstream manipulation (extant, emerging or potential) for furtherance of crimes with physical manifestations, including:

Drone and robot hijacking and weaponization;
Criminal abuses and weaponization of medical and surgical systems;
Criminal abuses and weaponization of IoT for domestic and commercial targeting;
Criminal abuses and weaponization of autonomous vehicles and delivery robots
AI and machine-learning system security to mitigate threats posed by advanced cybercriminal algorithms — and to guard against strategically misinforming and abusing them for criminal enterprises
New research on policy, regulation, and law as they pertain to cybercrime of all types


AI and machine-learning system security to mitigate threats posed by advanced cybercriminal algorithms — and to guard against strategically misinforming and abusing them for criminal enterprises
New research on policy, regulation, and law as they pertain to cybercrime of all types


Topics of general interest for submissions to eCrime 2026 are listed below, under the heading “Solicited Research Topics for APWG eCrime 2026.”


Important Dates (papers):

Full Paper Registration / Submission of full draft due: 30 May 2026

Training Session Proposals / full draft due: 30 May 2026

Notification of Acceptance / Shepherding decisions: 30 June 2026

Shepherding: 30 June 2026 - 30 August 2026

Conference: November: 3 – 5, 2026

Camera-ready paper due: November 30th, 2026


The selected peer-reviewed papers will be presented at the eCrime symposium along with panels and talks in General Sessions from other researchers selected from industrial and academic research centers correspondent with the APWG.

General Information
eCrime sessions and proceedings are in English.
The Lisbon venue is the Intercontinental Lisbon. Room reservation link to come in a later edition of this CFP:

Please contact the APWG eCrime organizers for any other details via email at apwg_events@apwg.org.

Discounts
Students requiring discounts should contact symposium managers at apwg_events@apwg.org
IEEE members and partners requiring discounts should contact symposium managers at apwg_events@apwg.org
Discount codes are also available for university researchers, government personnel and law enforcement professionals from pubic-sector agencies as well as for IEEE members.
Please contact the APWG eCrime organizers for details via email at: apwg_events@apwg.org.

Solicited Research Topics for APWG eCrime 2026
Since 2006, APWG eCrime has cast its call for papers in relevant research disciplines, focusing in large part on financial crimes that abuse Internet technologies and IT to victimize users, enterprises and their brands.
APWG eCrime also specifically solicits original research on cyber-physical systems and operational technologies abused in the furtherance of any kind of crime: cyber (digital) or manifested in physical spaces, such as homes, enterprises, roadways, public spaces and critical infrastructure.

eCrime’s curators define these cybercrimes as those that exploit, disrupt, or manipulate cyber-physical systems or operational technologies — systems that integrate control, feedback, and communication mechanisms across digital, mechanical, and biological domains.

The selected peer-reviewed papers will be presented at the eCrime symposium along with panels and talks in General Sessions from other researchers selected from industrial and academic research centers correspondent with the APWG.

Alongside this expanded topic spectrum, eCrime 2026 Lisbon is also soliciting papers that speak to the following topics and issues:
Economic foundations of: cybercrime cyber-physical crimes; and other abuses of IT for criminal enterprise

Behavioural and psychosocial aspects of cybercrime; and cyber-physical system victimization and prevention

Emerging technological exposures, vulnerabilities, and risks

Architectural vulnerabilities (of products, operational technologies, infrastructures and cyber-physical systems) that advantage criminal actors

New or improved techniques to detect and respond to cybercrime and cyber-physical crimes of all types

How to accurately measure and understand the health and resilience of systems, networks, infrastructures and users against cybercrime

Addressing challenges of cybercrime’s increasing complexity (e.g. digital infrastructures, crime-fighting/forensic techniques, and the structure of the crimes themselves)

Measuring and modelling of cybercrime/cyber-physical system crimes and related criminal enterprises for operational protection routines

Measuring and modelling of cybercrime/cyber-physical system crimes and related criminal enterprises for informing rational underwriting instrumentation developed by commercial insurers

Analysis and modelling of the cybercrime and abuse risk landscape
Cybercrime/cyber-physical system crime payload delivery strategies and countermeasures (e.g. spam, mobile apps, social engineering, etc.)

Application of public policy and law for the programmatic suppression of common cybercrimes; crimes against or involving cyber-physical systems and related abuses

Policy and legal challenges as they relate to actually developing and sustaining anti-cybercrime practices and policies

Cryptocurrency crimes and related cybercrimes, and the forensic tools and techniques required to measure, prevent, and counter these crimes

Case studies of current cybercrime/cyber-physical system attack methods (e.g. phishing, malware, rogue antivirus programs, pharming, ransomware, crimeware, botnets, and emerging techniques)

Detecting and preventing abuse of internet infrastructure to neutralize cybercrimes/cyber-physical system crimes and abuses

Detecting and isolating cybercriminal gangs and their money laundering routines and enterprises

Cybercrime’s evolution in specific verticals (e.g. financial services, e-commerce, health and energy, etc.)

Cybercriminal cloaking techniques, and counter-cloaking tools and approaches

Design and evaluation of UI/UXs to neutralize fraud and enhance user security and cybercrime awareness

Novel methods for measuring cybercrime and related abuses for development of defensive routines and programs

Guidance for Authors
Submit papers here: https://ecrime2026.hotcrp.com
eCrime has adopted the IEEE publication format. Submissions should be in English, in PDF format with all fonts embedded, and formatted using the IEEE conference template, which can be found at:
https://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html

Submissions must include author names and affiliations, but should otherwise be anonymized. Authors’ own work should be referred to in the third person.

Papers should not exceed 12 letter-sized pages, excluding the bibliography and appendices. Committee members are not required to read appendices, so ensure that the main paper is intelligible without them.

Submitted papers that do not adhere to all the above guidelines may be rejected without consideration of their merits.

Authors of accepted papers must register for the event and present in person. Remote presentations delivered live and/or pre-recorded presentations will be considered in limited circumstances (e.g. where the lead author presents remotely and a co-author attends in person).

Authors will be asked to indicate whether they would like their submissions to be considered for the Best Student Paper Award. Any paper co-authored by a full-time student is eligible for this award.

Authors of accepted papers must guarantee that their paper will be presented at the conference. APWG eCrime understands that some authors may face difficulties in obtaining funding to attend the conference.

Therefore, a limited number of stipends are available for those who are unable to secure departmental or institutional underwriting for their travel. Students who will present their accepted papers themselves will be given priority in receiving this assistance.