ENS

The rapid digitalization of society has led to the emergence of complex, sensitive cyber
ecosystems that underpin critical infrastructures, essential services, and modern digital lives. As
networks evolve toward ubiquitous, high-bandwidth communication, including 5G-and-
Beyond, 6G, and massive IoT, they face increasingly sophisticated and frequent cyberattacks.
These modern threats, characterized by polymorphic malware, encrypted malicious
communications, and AI-generated attack logic, require a shift from traditional rule-based
mechanisms toward integrated, scalable, and trustworthy cybersecurity solutions.

The ENS 2026 workshop focuses on presenting recent scientific and industry developments in
tools and methodologies for threat detection, vulnerability assessment, and incident response
across all types of emerging networks. Grounded in the philosophy of security-by-design, the
workshop aims to explore resilient systems engineering from the hardware level (e.g., RISC-V
and Open FPGA) up to the software and cloud layers. A central theme of this edition is the role
of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning as a double-edged sword: both as powerful tools
for predictive analytics and anomaly detection, and as a source of novel, automated threats.

ENS 2026 serves as an interdisciplinary forum for researchers and practitioners to:

1. Share innovative methods for protecting digital infrastructures, including energy,
   telecommunications, and research networks.
2. Explore Explainable AI (XAI) and trustworthy ML models that allow human analysts to
   interpret and validate automated security decisions.
3. Bridge the gap between academia, industry, and security operations centers (SOCs) to
   foster a secure and trustworthy digital society.
4. Address the evolving landscape of privacy, ethics, and regulatory frameworks, such as EU
   technological sovereignty and cybersecurity standards.

The ENS workshop builds upon three successful editions of the 5G-NS (5G Networks Security)
workshop, which were previously organized in co-location with the ARES conference since
2018.

Moreover, this year, the ENS workshop is co-organized by the PERUN (Protecting Sensitive
Cyber Ecosystems from Upcoming Next Generation and AI-generated Malware Threats)
project. Additionally, the extended versions of all accepted papers will be considered for
publication in a special issue of the Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility (indexed in Scopus).