Advances in Privacy, Security, and Trust: Cryptographic Perspectives from PST2025

Dear Colleagues,

The 22nd Annual International Conference on Privacy, Security, and Trust (PST2025, https://pstnet.ca/), to be held in Fredericton, Canada, continues to serve as a premier forum for advancing cybersecurity research and applications. This Special Issue of Cryptography aims to showcase cutting-edge research presented at PST2025, with a focus on cryptographic techniques and their role in addressing contemporary challenges in privacy, security, and trust. As digital systems become increasingly pervasive—spanning critical infrastructure, e-services, and emerging technologies like IoT and blockchain—the need for robust cryptographic solutions has never been greater.

We invite submissions that explore innovative cryptographic methods and their applications across interdisciplinary topics, including but not limited to privacy-preserving data analysis, secure multi-party computation, blockchain and distributed ledger security, and side-channel attack countermeasures. This Special Issue welcomes both extended versions of PST2025 conference papers (with at least 50% new material) and original contributions from the wider research community. Submissions should align with the journal’s scope and contribute to the advancement of cryptographic theory, design, or implementation in the context of privacy, security, and trust.

We look forward to your submissions and to fostering a vibrant dialogue on the cryptographic foundations of a secure digital future.

Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Privacy Preserving / Enhancing Technologies;
• Critical Infrastructure Protection;
• Network and Wireless Security;
• Cloud Security, Web Security and Privacy;
• Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy;
• Operating Systems Security;
• Intrusion Detection / Prevention Technologies;
• Secure Software Development and Architecture;
• PST Challenges in e-Services, e.g., e-Health, e- Government, e-Commerce;
• Digital Forensics;
• Security Analytics and Data Mining;
• Cryptographic Technologies;
• Recommendation, Reputation and Delivery Technologies;
• Zero-Day Vulnerabilities, Continuous Authentication;
• Security and Privacy Challenges in Blockchain and its Applications;
• Trust Technologies, Technologies for Building Trust in e-Business Strategy;
• Observations of PST in Practice, Society, Policy and Legislation;
• Digital Rights Management;
• Identity and Trust Management;
• Human–Computer Interaction and PST;
• Biometrics, National ID Cards, Identity Theft;
• Implications of, and Technologies for, Lawful Surveillance;
• Privacy, Traceability, and Anonymity;
• Trust and Reputation in Self-Organizing Environments;
• Anonymity and Privacy vs. Accountability;
• Access Control and Capability Delegation;
• Generative AI security, privacy, and trust;
• Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) Protocols;
• Quantum Cryptography beyond QKD;
• Post-quantum cryptography.

Prof. Dr. Rongxing Lu
Prof. Dr. Ali Ghorbani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cryptography is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cryptography
• privacy-preserving technologies
• cybersecurity
• trust management