Editorial: Plagiarism Is For Losers

This issue presents two useful applications of formal modeling. The first paper, Specification guidelines to avoid the state space explosion problem, by Groote, Kouters, and Osaiweran, give a technique for security testing of firewalls. They formally model firewalls, and then combine testing with a proof technique to verify the correctness of the implemented firewall. (Recommended by Alan Hartman.) The second paper, Formal firewall conformance testing: An application of test and proof techniques, by Brucker, Brügger, and Wolff, is based on years of experience building statebased models. The authors have found that some models make testing and verification much easier than others, and give guidance for designing useful models. (Recommended by Ronald Olsson.)