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Call for Papers: Workshop on SOC Operations and Construction (WOSOC) 2026

WOSOC, The Workshop on SOC Operations and Construction, is the premier forum for academic researchers and security operators to share insights on this rapidly evolving and increasingly professional field. WOSOC is now soliciting proposals and papers for its 2026 forum, which will be co-located with the NDSS conference in San Diego, CA, on Monday, 23 February 2026.

We solicit proposals from both operators and researchers on two separate tracks – operators can submit talk proposals to discuss their work and experience, while researchers submit short papers.  Accepted proposals will be presented and discussed at the forum. WOSOC is an open workshop, but in order to enable serious discussion of operational security topics, the workshop will adhere to the Chatham House Rule.

  • Talks and presentations will not be recorded
  • Academic papers and operational talk abstracts will be published in proceedings; presentations are not published.

Areas of Interest

  • SOC design and construction
  • SOC workflow and operations
  • Alert management, triage and prioritization
  • Incident response case studies
  • Network management techniques for encrypted traffic flows
  • Increasing SOC efficiency through automation
  • Threat hunting

  • Operational visualization and data summarization
  • Intelligence gathering, enrichment, and operations
  • Security operations specific to particular fields or domains
  • Integration of agentic AI in SOC workflows
  • Human factors in SOC operations
  • Training, development and managing burnout

WOSOC welcomes submissions from any disciplinary perspective to the above topics, including but not limited to computer science, economics, psychology, criminology, political science, law, and information systems. 

Submissions

WOSOC will accept short papers and talk proposals.  Researchers shall submit short papers on ongoing or planned work that can be read by participants in advance of the event. Operators shall submit talk proposals to share insights, case studies and novel ideas.  The 2026 workshop will schedule 20 minute slots for all speakers, broken into 15 minute talk followed by a 5 minute Q&A period. 

Submit papers and proposals (PDF or text format) to the WOSOC 2026 HotCRP site at https://ant.isi.edu/wosoc-2026. 

Submission Instructions: Short Papers

WOSOC short papers can cover emerging research, work in progress and position papers.  Short papers must be between 4-8 pages excluding references.  Papers must be submitted in Portable Document Format (.pdf) and must use the NDSS templates, available at https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss2026/submissions/templates/.

Papers must be formatted for US letter size (not A4) paper in a two-column layout, with columns no more than 9.25 in. high and 3.5 in. wide. The text must be in Times font, 10-point or larger, with 11-point or larger line spacing. 

Submission Instructions: Talk Proposals 

WOSOC talk proposals are intended to provide operational personnel a mechanism to discuss SOC-related topics at the workshop.  Talk proposals must be submitted in text format,  and contain the following information:
Title of the talk 

  • Title of the talk 
  • A single paragraph abstract; this abstract will be published in the pre-proceedings upon acceptance 
  • One-two paragraphs outlining the talk 
  • A speaker biography and affiliation

Important Dates

  • Paper submissions due: 22 December 2025 AoE 
  • Talk proposals due: 22 December 2025 AoE
  • Notification to authors: 9 January 2026 AoE
  • Camera ready: 30 January 2026 AoE
  • NDSS 2026: 23–27 February 2026 

Further Information

Questions about the workshop, suitability of topics and other issues should be emailed to [email protected].