We are at the cusp of a technological revolution that will make computational devices ubiquitous in our environment--from digital sensors for home-based assisted living to next-generation wireless implantable medical devices for heart pacing and defibrillation. But the wonderful new opportunities these devices present come with potentially serious threats to our data, privacy, property, and even personal safety. For example, while the MySpace generation might flock to future phone-based social-­networking systems--
systems that could instantly reveal whether the person next to you at the bar is a "friend of a friend" who shares your passion for classic movies and country line dancing--those same systems might be exploitable by sexual predators and other miscreants.

Helping society realize the benefits of these new technologies without simultaneously exposing users to serious risks is the charter of the computer security research community.