The 3rd edition of AutonomousCyber 2026 represents a continued effort to advance research and development in autonomous cybersecurity. Following the success of our inaugural event, AutonomousCyber 2024, co-located with the 31st ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS 2024) in Salt Lake City, USA and the second edition, AutonomousCyber 2025, held at ESORICS 2025 in Toulouse, France, the 2026 edition will be co-located with the 31st European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2026), a premier venue for security and privacy research.

AutonomousCyber Workshop presents an exciting opportunity to explore state-of-the-art methodologies, groundbreaking technologies, and real-world applications. We solicit original, unpublished, and innovative research work relevant to the theme of this workshop. We seek contributions in, but are not limited to, the following key areas of interest and topics:

Foundational and Theoretical Advances:
Cognitive models for enhancing threat intelligence
Principles and theory of self-learning cybersecurity systems
Advances in QML for proactive cyber defence
Human–machine teaming for cyber resilience
Formal models of autonomous defensive decision-making
Verification and assurance of agentic cyber defense behaviour
Evaluation metrics for autonomy, reliability, and safety

Autonomous Cybersecurity Techniques & Methods:
AI-driven threat detection and mitigation algorithms
Development of simulators for testing autonomous security systems
Architectural innovations for adaptive and self-improving cybersecurity

Predictive modeling and proactive defence strategies:
Integration of autonomous defences with large-scale networked and distributed systems
AI agents for continuous assurance and compliance
LLM-based reasoning for adaptive defense orchestration
Autonomous vulnerability discovery and patch synthesis
Benchmarks and datasets for evaluating autonomy in cybersecurity
Planning and tool-use in cyber defense agents
Memory, reasoning, and state tracking for security agents
Adversarial attacks against autonomous cyber agents
Guardrails and runtime monitors for autonomous security systems

Practical Applications and Case Studies:
AI-based automated patch management and incident response
Autonomous digital forensics and independent security investigations
Real-world implementations and lessons learned from deployed autonomous security solutions
Autonomous SOC operation and AI security copilots
Autonomous response in cyber-physical and critical infrastructure systems
Evaluation of autonomous systems in operational and adversarial environments (e.g., red-teaming, CTFs, SOC scenarios)

Ethical, Legal, and Operational Considerations:
Regulatory challenges of deploying autonomous cybersecurity systems
Ethical considerations in self-adaptive AI-driven cyber defences
Continuous compliance monitoring with AI-driven systems
Accountability and governance of action-taking AI defenders
Human oversight and escalation policies in autonomous defense
Safety, reliability, and trust frameworks for autonomous cybersecurity systems

We encourage contributions that offer novel insights, theoretical advancements, empirical evaluations, and reflections on real-world implementations in AutonomousCyber 2026. This workshop aims to foster a deeper understanding of autonomous systems in cybersecurity and their pivotal role in shaping the future of digital security.


Workshop Organizers:
Ali Dehghantanha, Canada Research Chair and Professor, University of Guelph, ON, Canada
Reza M. Parizi, Director of Decentralized Science Lab and Professor, Kennesaw State University, USA
Gregory Epiphaniou, Associate Professor of Security Engineering, University of Warwick, UK

Workshop Chairs:
Ali Dehghantanha, University of Guelph, ON, Canada
Reza M. Parizi, Kennesaw State University, USA
Gregory Epiphaniou, University of Warwick, UK

Publication Chair:
Abbas Yazdinejad, University of Regina, SK, Canada

Publicity Chair:
Tooska Dargahi, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Tao Li, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong