The 21st International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructure Security (CRITIS 2026) invites researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and industry experts to submit original contributions on the security, resilience, and protection of critical information infrastructures and essential services.

Building on twenty successful editions, CRITIS has established itself as a leading international forum for cutting-edge research, emerging challenges, and practical solutions at the intersection of technology, operations, and policy. CRITIS 2026 will take place on 28–30 September 2026 in Cyprus, hosted by the Cybersecurity & Telecommunications Research Lab (CTRL) of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC).

As critical infrastructures become increasingly interconnected and exposed to evolving cyber, physical, human, and environmental threats, CRITIS 2026 aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue and innovative approaches that strengthen security, resilience, and mission continuity across sectors.

Submission Guidelines

CRITIS 2026 welcomes high-quality submissions including, but not limited to, the following topics:

Resilience & Continuity

• Cyber resilience
• Incident response and recovery
• Continuity planning and preparedness
• Crisis management for critical infrastructures

Situational Awareness & Decision Support

• Cyber situational awareness
• Decision support for cyber incident management
• Threat detection and correlation
• Threat intelligence and information sharing
• Intelligence analysis for C(I)IP

Cyber-Physical & Industrial Systems

• Cyber-physical systems security
• Human-centric cyber-physical systems
• Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) security
• Service-oriented approaches for critical infrastructures
• Critical Services

Risk, Dependencies & Impact

• Risk and vulnerability analysis
• Cascade and dependency analysis
• Systemic risk modelling

Platforms, Testbeds & Experimental Environments

• Cyber ranges and testbeds for CI
• Experimental security platforms and labs
• Large-scale CI simulations
• Digital twins for critical infrastructures and services
• Evaluation methodologies

Emerging Technologies & Future Threats

• Technology forecasting and TechWatch for C(I)IP
• Emerging technologies for C(I)IP
• Explainable AI for critical infrastructures
• Quantum intelligence and post-quantum security for C(I)IP

Governance, Strategy, Legal and Ethical Dimensions

• Critical infrastructure governance and regulation
• Strategic management and policy for C(I)IP
• Compliance and assurance mechanisms
• Privacy and data protection in C(I)IP
• Legal and ethical aspects of critical infrastructures

Human Aspects

• Security awareness
• Cybersecurity capacity building and workforce development
• Human factors and usable security
• Training, education, and serious games for C(I)IP
• Immersive training

Environmental, Physical Threats

• Climate change impacts on critical infrastructures and services
• Natural threats to critical infrastructures
• Sustainable critical infrastructure

Other original contributions related to infrastructure and services security, resilience, and protection are warmly welcome.

CRITIS 2026 encourages:

• Academic research papers
• Applied and industry-driven contributions
• Interdisciplinary and cross-sector studies
• Policy-oriented and regulatory analyses

Committees

Steering Committee:

• Berhard M. Hämmerli, Switzerland
• Javier Lopez, Spain
• Stephen D. Wolthusen, UK

Organizing Comitttee:

• Stavros Stavrou, OUC, CY
• Eliana Stavrou, OUC, CY
• Adamantini Peratikou, OUC, CY

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to adamantini.peratikou@ouc.ac.cy