Given the always increasing size of computer systems, manually protecting them in case of attacks is unfeasible and error-prone. For this reason, a new body of work is emerging specifically to address the run-time protection of computer systems. One of the properties of the Autonomic Computing paradigm is self-protection, and this special issue is entirely dedicated to explore novel approaches that consider any aspect of it, ranging from intrusion detection to intrusion response, but also including performance modeling and evaluation, low-level run-time operating system security, and compliance with security policies. After a review process, a total of 12 articles have been accepted for publication in this issue.

鉴于计算机系统规模总是在不断扩大，因此在受到攻击时手动保护它们是不可行的，而且容易出错。因此，专门针对计算机系统运行时保护的新工作正在兴起。自主计算范式的特性之一是自我保护，这一专刊完全致力于探讨考虑其任何方面的新颖方法，范围从入侵检测到入侵响应，还包括性能建模和评估，低级别的运行时操作系统安全性，以及对安全策略的遵守情况。经过审查，本期共发表了12篇文章。