Prof. Dr. Leandros Maglaras Appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of Section “Information Security and Privacy” in Information

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Prof. Dr. Leandros Maglaras as the new Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Information Security and Privacy” in Information (ISSN: 2078-2489).

Prof. Dr. Leandros Maglaras is a Professor at the School of Computer Science and Informatics at De Montfort University, where he conducts research at the Cyber Security Centre and the Software Technology Research Laboratory. Recognized for his academic contributions, he is featured on Stanford University’s list of the World’s Top 2% Scientists.

He holds a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Thessaly, Greece. With significant public service experience, Prof. Maglaras has served as the Director of Greece’s Cyber Security Directorate and as the Head of the National Cyber Security Authority.

He has authored over 200 papers published in scientific journals and conference proceedings. Additionally, he serves on the editorial boards of several international peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Maglaras is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, and a member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. He has participated in numerous research programs across diverse fields, including vehicular and ICT technologies, sustainable development, cybersecurity, as well as the optimization and prediction of the dielectric behavior of air gaps.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Leandros Maglaras, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views on the current state of the field:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take on the role as its Section Editor-in-Chief?

My decision to accept the role was driven by three main factors: the journal’s interdisciplinary relevance, its dedication to open science, and the strategic importance of the “Information Security and Privacy” Section itself.

The journal Information serves as a high-visibility, centralized platform for the core concepts driving the digital world: data, knowledge, and communication. In an era where security is a cross-disciplinary challenge, being published in a journal with a strong standing (e.g., Q2 in Computer Science/Information Systems) ensures our Section’s research reaches a wide, high-impact audience that includes AI engineers, data scientists, and information system architects.

Moreover, as a pioneering open access journal published by MDPI, Information aligns with my belief in the democratization of scientific knowledge. In a field like cybersecurity, where threats and defenses evolve daily, rapid and free access to the latest research is crucial for practitioners and academics globally.

Finally, the dedicated “Information Security and Privacy” Section offers a focused, high-quality home for vital work. It’s an honor to lead efforts to publish rigorous, cutting-edge research directly addressing the most complex and pressing global security and privacy challenges.

2. What is your vision for the Section?

My vision is to establish the “Information Security and Privacy” Section as the premier global reference point for impactful, forward-looking security research, fostering work that transitions quickly from theoretical proof to real-world application.

My priorities for the Section are as follows:

• Focus on Applied Resilience and Zero-Trust: We must move beyond simple perimeter defense. I will prioritize submissions that focus on resilient architectures, zero-trust models, and human-in-the-loop security validation for both conventional and new-age systems like Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) and Critical Infrastructures (CIs);
• Emphasizing AI/ML and Decentralized Systems: We will actively seek out research at the nexus of security and emerging technologies, including federated learning security, explainable AI (XAI) for threat detection, and privacy-preserving mechanisms in Blockchain/Web3 environments;
• Upholding Stringent Integrity: To maintain and enhance the journal’s reputation, my team and I will ensure a highly efficient, yet absolutely stringent, peer-review process, guaranteeing that all published work is scientifically sound, novel, and ethically responsible.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

The future of information security and privacy research is defined by three interconnected transformations: autonomy, decentralization, and privacy-by-design.

As attackers increasingly use AI, defenses must become autonomous. Future research will center on generative adversarial network (GAN) defenses, building trustworthy and secure AI models (Sec-AI/Trustworthy AI), and developing new models to predict novel threat vectors before they are observed in the wild.

In addition, the move toward decentralized systems (Blockchain, Web3) and the looming threat of quantum computing necessitate new research paths. This is translated into a sharp increase in work on post-quantum cryptography (PQC), homomorphic encryption, and highly secure distributed ledger technologies that balance transparency with data privacy.

Finally, privacy is shifting from a compliance issue to a core system requirement. The future of research lies in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs), like differential privacy and secure multi-party computation, ensuring that user data can be analyzed for value without ever being exposed.

4. What do you think of the development of open access in the publishing field?

I view the development of open access (OA), particularly the MDPI model, not just as a desirable trend but as the necessary and inevitable future of scholarly communication. For a field as globally critical and time-sensitive as information security and privacy, the benefits are many. Open access ensures that critical, time-sensitive knowledge—such as new vulnerabilities, countermeasure strategies, and security protocols—is immediately and freely available to researchers, governments, and industry professionals around the world, regardless of their institutional budget. This accelerates the defensive cycle against global threats.

By removing paywalls, OA significantly increases the visibility, accessibility, and citation rate of published research, maximizing the scientific impact for our authors and the journal itself. OA fulfills the moral imperative to ensure that the public and industry can benefit directly from publicly funded scientific output.

The challenge now is to ensure that the speed and accessibility of open access publishing are consistently paired with the highest standards of rigor and ethical peer review, a standard MDPI is committed to upholding.

We wish Prof. Dr. Leandros Maglaras every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.