Cyber squad cracks child porn case with thousands of files

Another success story for the Greek Cyber Squad

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Ad blocking has grown 41% in the past year and it's costing publishers tens of billions of dollars

The number of consumers using ad blocking software worldwide has increased 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users, according to a report published Monday by PageFair and Adobe. While that figure may only represent 6% of the global web population, ad blocking is expected to cost publishers more than $21.8 billion in 2015 in lost revenue. That represents 14% of global ad spend. By 2016, PageFair and Adobe predict the global cost of ad blocking to rise to $41.4 billion. This chart, which chronicles ad blocking growth from 2009 shows how ad blocker use really started to accelerate from 2013. And while the 41% increase this year was down on the near 70% growth PageFair and Adobe reported between 2013 and 2014, it's nevertheless a worrying trend for publishers. Dr Johnny Ryan, PageFair's head of ecosystem, told Business Insider: "Ad blocking has grown virally along a classic s-curve to 50+ million ad blocking users at the end of 2012, and onward to 198 million at the end of Q2 2015. This viral growth, and the climb up the curve you describe, is explained by our findings in last year's 2014 report (page nine) that the majority of ad block users find out about ad blocking by word of mouth and through their own online research. Ad blocking is a viral phenomenon that will continue." The rate of ad blocking varies country by country. The US has an estimate 45 million monthly active ad block users, up 48% year-on-year. Across Europe, 35% of the internet population (77 million users) used an ad blocker at least once a month. Greece has the highest rate of ad block usage in Europe, with 36.7% of internet users in the country using ad block software. As per previous research in this area, PageFair and Adobe found that ad block users are typically, young, technically savvy, and more likely to be male. Here are the types of websites affected most by ad blocking. Right now, ad blocking almost always happens via desktop computers, even though 38% of web browsing happens n mobile. Just 1.6% of ad block traffic on the PageFair network was from mobile devices But ad blocking on mobile could soon become a mainstream phenomena. Apple's developer documents for its new mobile operating system iOS9, revealed it will for the first time allow app makers to develop ad blocking software for iPhones and iPads.  PageFair and Adobe say this could be a "game changer." Apple's Safari mobile browser represents 52% of mobile browsing and 14% of total web browsing. By making it easier to download ad blocking software, ad block usage could soar when iOS9 becomes available in the fall. However, as ad tech company Criteo's president and COO Eric Eichmann pointed out last week, users will still need to manually download the "obscure" software themselves, meaning the iOS9 update might not be as big and immediate a catalyst as feared. As part of their report, PageFair and Adobe surveyed 400 people in the US about the reasons they might start or have started using ad blockers. Of those who are currently not using ad blocking extensions, the misuse of personal information by advertisers and publishers was the primary reason that would convince them to change their mind. Surprisingly, using an ad blocker to improve the speed and performance of web pages was not listed as one of the responses in the report. In a survey of British internet users conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK earlier this year, 54% of respondents said they block ads because they slow down web browsing. But PageFair's Ryan said performance is not as much of a key motivator as some people might think. Just 8% of respondents in PageFair and Adobe's report last year cited performance as their main reason for installing an ad blocker. PageFair has been tracking the growth of ad blocking for three years, and measures more than a billion ad blocking hits each month across its 3,000+ clients' websites. The company provides publishers with analytics to measure how many of their visitors are blocking ads and a system that displays "adblock-friendly" ads to ad block users.adSEE ALSO: Apple seems ready to let iPhone users block all ads they see on the web — which will really hurt publishers Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Meet the real people who want Donald Trump to be president

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New Tablet and Smartphone Apps for Greek Museums

The Greek Culture Ministry in cooperation with the Simon Fraser University’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies in Canada are launching new apps for smartphones and tablets that can be used by demanding audiences during their visit to museums and other cultural venues in Greece. According to the Greek Ministry, the launch of these new apps, that will be available

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Hackers could take complete control of your computer if you use 'the Netflix for pirated movies'

Popcorn Time, the Netflix-like website for pirated movie content, may be vulnerable to a hack attack, TorrentFreak reports. This is according to a Greek security researcher named Antonios Chariton who published a blog post this past weekend. Using a series of techniques, Chariton wrote that he demonstrated how "someone can get complete control of a computer assuming they have a Man In The Middle position in the network." A 'man-in-the-middle' attack is when a hacker intercepts a data request between two machines. It is then able to swap the intended data for something malicious. So, if an attacker is able to execute one of these intercepting attacks, he or she can wreak havoc on the computer running Popcorn Time. The attack is based on the clever way Popcorn Time avoids being banned by internet service providers (ISPs). The application is able to connect directly to the CloudFlare network. This, put in the simplest of terms, means that if an ISP wants to block the Popcorn Time program it would have to ban the entire CloudFlare website and not just the pirated content program. This is a smart way to avoid widespread ISP blocks. The problem, however, is that the connection to CloudFlare is made over the HTTP protocol, and it's been shown that HTTP is just not secure. Chariton didn't mince his words: "HTTP is insecure. There's nothing you can do to change this. Please, use HTTPS everywhere, especially in applications that don't run inside a web browser." Because of HTTP's vulnerability, Chariton wrote that he was able to inject malicious code into a victim computer using Popcorn Time. Popcorn Time penned a blog post responding to these claims. It assured users that they “don’t need to worry.” For one, man-in-the-middle attacks are “very unlikely,” and require a hacker gaining access into a victim’s personal network. The site does admit that there are some security issues to be dealt with. It says it will release a fix to these shortly, but adds that what Chariton brought to light isn't as dire as it may seem.SEE ALSO: The malware that's been holding gamers' files hostage for $500 is now even more destructive Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: All the incredibly useful things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

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This is how the FBI hunts down the world's most notorious cyber-criminals

Cyber-attacks are ten a penny now, and the FBI and other authorities that investigate these crimes around the world have many hurdles to cross if they want to catch a hacker. Police forces can often be hindered by the dark web and anonymizing tools used by cyber-criminals to cover their tracks, but there are also political barriers in arresting cyber-criminals in other countries as well as lengthy trials and investigations into home-grown perpetrators. A couple of high profile cases from recent years have shined a light on how cyber-crime cases are carried out. There is now a growing underground economy for cyber-crime. It is no longer the preserve of just the hacker elite. The market is thriving, said Symantec in one of its most recent threat reports. More cyber-criminals, whether sophisticated or glorified script kiddies, means more work for authorities as they try desperately to keep up with a flood of international attacks. International cyber arrests Many of the world’s most active hackers are dotted across the globe, from Russia to China, from the UK to Australia. The FBI’s most wanted cyber-crime list includes numerous foreign nationals. The most recent hacker snagged from across the pond was British man Lauri Love, who is charged with infiltrating US government computers and now faces extradition. American authorities encounter many hurdles when trying to capture and extradite an international cyber-criminal. Recently, they scored a rare win with the extradition of alleged hacker Ercan Findikoglu, a Turkish man who’d been arrested in Germany in 2013 and had been sitting in prison there since. Findikoglu, 33, is accused of leading a criminal group that hacked ATMs in New York and 23 other countries, stealing over 50 million dollars. Findikoglu had been described as one of the most wanted cyber crooks in the world, and if convicted he could face life behind bars — in the form of a 247 year prison sentence. A Swedish man named Alex Yucel, who led the Blackshades group, was convicted by a New York court in June and sentenced to four years and nine months for developing and selling malware. He had been arrested in Moldova in 2013 and successfully extradited following years of creating remote access tools that could gain control of victims’ computers. His software is believed to have infected over 500,000 computers. Yucel pleaded guilty and Judge P. Kevin Castel described him and other cyber-criminals as “spreading misery” across the world’s internet users. “The message must go forth that this is a serious crime worthy of a serious punishment,” said the judge. “Yucel’s computer hacking days are now over,” said Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Forming cross border bonds There are many wanted hackers in Europe that are of interest to American authorities. One of the most notorious is Nicolae Popescu, a Romanian national, wanted for orchestrating an Internet fraud scheme. Local Romanian authorities take the threat of hackers very seriously, says Alexandru Catalin Cosoi, chief security strategist at Romanian security software company Bitdefender. Academics, the security industry, and governments need to form bonds to carry out international efforts. “[Authorities are] in the underground forums, they’re doing a lot of arrests,” he says. “I know that there are a lot of specialists in the law enforcement agencies that are very skilled and are very eager to solve these issues.” Academics, the security industry, and governments need to form bonds to carry out international efforts, adds Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, director of the Cyber Security Research Center at the University of Texas, Dallas. “We need not just technical solutions, we need political solutions,” she says. In Europe, organizations like Europol and the private security sector work together to investigate and eventually arrest cyber-criminals, says Ilias Chantzos, senior director of government affairs EMEA at Symantec. “We will work together, collect intelligence to understand what is the criminal infrastructure we want to go after,” says Chantzos, who also sits on Europol’s Cybercrime Centre (EC3) advisory group. “What will happen, will be an effective, regular interaction between corporations and law enforcement, exchanging information, and when there’s a green light, the operation will take place.” Europol also collaborates with the FBI, as seen recently in the shuttering of dark web forum Darkode, which included Romanian authorities, for example. The operation was led by the FBI and included law enforcement agencies from 20 countries. “Obviously jurisdiction is an issue,” explains Chantzos, but effective communication and collaboration makes a difference. “We need to know that the criminal is in a territory that we can do the arrest or that we know that some of the criminal infrastructure we’re going to disrupt is in a territory that we can exercise jurisdiction. Some of it will not be there and we need to accept that so often the effectiveness will be as good as it possibly can be.” Safe in Russia? The top man on the FBI’s most wanted cyber-crime list is the Russian hacker Evgeniy Mikhailovitch Bogachev, with a three million dollar bounty on his head, the highest reward of anyone else on the list. The FBI says he’s likely still at his residence in Anapa, Russia on the Black Sea, which poses immense challenges for investigators. The US doesn’t have a formal extradition treaty with Russia, unlike Sweden, Turkey, and Germany, and diplomatic relations between the countries are fraught. Russia’s decision to grant asylum to Edward Snowden in 2013 worsened relations between Russia and the US on this matter. We will use every available legal and diplomatic means to bring all cyber-criminals to justice wherever they reside. “We will use every available legal and diplomatic means to bring all cyber-criminals to justice wherever they reside,” said David Hickton, US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where the charges were filed. Bogachev (AKA “lucky12345″ and “slavik”) was formally indicted last year under his real name for developing strains of ransomware and coordinating the GameOver Zeus botnet, an attack network that could be used to siphon off online banking details. His malware is believed to have infected at least one million computers globally and raked in an estimated $100 million. The Russian’s charges are exhaustive and include computer fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft. He’s considered a major threat to the US banking industry and the possible head of a cybercrime “gang” working out of Russia and Ukraine, which has made him a high priority. There are rumors that Russian authorities have willingly turned a blind eye. According to a Telegraph report from last year, he is even seen as a hero of sorts among the residents of his hometown. That makes catching him much more difficult — though it’s still not impossible. “Cybercriminals like normal people like to travel,” says Chantzos. “[Russians] might go to Cyprus for holiday. Well, guess what, there’s a European arrest warrant waiting for him. The moment he arrives in Cyprus, he’s going to get picked up.” Many hackers, regardless of nationality, are known to have traveled in the hopes of evading capture, but it may give the FBI a chance. Latvian Alexsey Belan, wanted for hacking US ecommerce companies, was last known to be in Greece. Peteris Sahurovs, who allegedly sold fraudulent security software, may still be in Latvia. These hackers, if picked up in their travels, can be extradited regardless of nationality. An unsolved mystery As criminals like Bogachev have proven, there are still major gaps in international cyber-crime enforcement, and a smart hacker can exploit them to operate with near impunity. Nevertheless, international stings have become more commonplace, and much more intensive. In recent news, the FBI is seeking the extradition of two Israeli suspectsfollowing their arrest over the JPMorgan hack. And in June, Europol successfully shut down a major cyber-crime organization in Ukraine. “There’s a lot of countries that will not extradite. That will not stop us from pressing forward and charging those individuals and making it public,” Robert Anderson, the FBI’s Executive Assistant Director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, told a conference in May, promising more arrests under his tenure. Bogachev may still be in Russia, but with a $3m incentive for his arrest, hacktivists and online sleuths could end up being the FBI’s friend. Countries across the globe are well aware of the threat foreign hackers can pose, and are working together to tighten the noose. Today’s Internet at times feels a bit like the wild west, it will in all likelihood be tamed. Eventually.Join the conversation about this story »

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Minecraft Xbox One, PS4 Gets Greek Mythology DLC

Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4 owners can now buy a $4 bundle that comes with 39 Greek mythology character skins (see the ...

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Google spearheads an industry group to help developers build web apps the Google way

Today, Google announced that it's turned over one of its key technologies to a new industry consortium — the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, an industry association dedicated to helping developers build web apps the way the big companies do.  The Cloud Native Computing Foundation, or CNCF, is housed under the Linux Foundation, with a membership roster that includes companies like Twitter, IBM, Intel, Cisco, and Goldman Sachs, among others. The basic idea is that, over the years, big companies like Google have gotten really good at "achieving very efficient deployment, development, and scalability" of applications running on the modern web, says Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. The industry term "cloud native" itself speaks to the mission of the foundation: It's the current favored buzzword for applications that are designed to run on a cloud computing infrastructure, like Amazon's giant cloud, or Google's own. The benefit is that these apps are intended to be reliably run at the huge scales demanded by a mobile-dominated, data-driven world. "This has happened inside tech giants, I think it'll happen inside enterprises," says Google Product Manager Craig McLuckie. This discussion all comes back to what we call "containers," a super-hot technology that Google's been using for the better part of a decade. Containers make it super-easy to package up a bunch of code into a metaphorical box (a container, get it?) so that it can run on any computing infrastructure, anywhere.  Google put these containers to good use early on in its corporate lifetime, and figured out all kinds of tricks and built all kinds of tools to use them as the "plumbing" behind its search advertising empire.  More recently, a startup called Docker (also a member of the CNCF), rumored to be valued at $1 billion, released its own container technology, making that kind of technological wizardry more accessible to the masses. Suddenly, everybody in enterprise technology was talking about doing things the Google way with containers, working towards getting their applications up to Google's size and Google's speed. To meet the growing demand, Google released a piece of free software called Kubernetes (from Greek, meaning "pilot" or "helmsman"), based on its own internal container management code, to help people solve the same problems that Google had done years before. And as an "open source" software project, Kubernetes was free for anybody around the world to contribute code. Kubernetes was a hit with web companies like Box and Zulill, which use it to run their apps more efficiently. Meanwhile, back in June, Google and Docker, among many others, joined the Open Container Foundation, a group to define a container standard. As part of its OSCON announcements today, Google announced that Kubernetes hit the Version 1.0 milestone, with 400 contributors adding code, meaning that it's ready for enterprises to use it for their production applications. CoreOS, a Google-backed startup that joined the CNCF as well, also announced a paid preview of its Tectonic service, which takes Kubernetes and makes it easier for businesses to use. To get the new foundation off the ground, Google is actually handing over the Kubernetes code to the CNAF for them to manage and maintain. Using Kubernetes as a "seed," the CNAF has a mandate to build more technologies that make it easier to build and manage web-scale applications.   "Efforts designed to simplify and improve the overall developer experience, such as the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, are a great step forward," says Cisco CTO and Chief Architect Dave Ward. Google's turning over Kubernetes is a "subtle" but "important" move, notes CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi: It's a show of good faith that the Internet search giant doesn't want to exert an unfair amount of influence over the standards it's working to define. Still, it's notable that Amazon and Microsoft are not members of this new CNCF -- so the announcement could be interpreted as Google trying to make its own Google Cloud Platform the cloud of choice for the discerning developer by enlisting the help and expertise of a who's who of tech players.SEE ALSO: The 'ugly' truth about what Microsoft has to do to sway Wall Street Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Scientists are astonished by these Goby fish that can climb 300-foot waterfalls

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Greek App Shows Which ATMs Have Cash During Capital Controls

A new mobile app was released on Thursday, informing Greeks which ATMs are convenient to them, if they have available cash at the moment and if they dispense 50 or the now scarce 20 euro bills. Dimitris Chatzieleftheriou, who developed the application along with Haris Spentzas and Christos Kritikos, explained: “Our idea had come from the very first days of capital controls. It was not technically difficult and took us one or two days to develop. The most demanding part was to find all ATMs in Greece and register them.” The application is relatively simple and is based on the feedback of users themselves. “With two clicks you can update all application users that there is money in the machine and if it has 20 euro banknotes or just 50 euro banknotes,” said Chatzileftheriou. The user can find out information such as “the specific ATM had 20 euro notes 15 minutes ago.” The application is available on the Android platform only. “Apple’s App Store requires a few more days to get approval and uploading,” Chatzieleftheriou added.

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10 things in tech you need to know today (AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, FB)

Good morning! Here's what you need to know in tech today. 1. It looks like Apple Watch sales are tanking. Apple hasn't broken out specific sales figures for its new smartwatch, but analytics firm Slice Intelligence thinks they have plummeted to around 5,000/day, down from roughly 35,000/day on April 13. 2. Some of the world's leading cryptography and security experts have condemned UK/US proposals to mandate backdoors in encryption. They warn that "the costs would be substantial, the damage to innovation severe, and the consequences to economic growth difficult to predict." 3. Facebook is opening a new wind-powered data centre in Fort Worth, Texas. It is the social networking giant's fifth, and will cost at least $500 million. 4. Tinder is introducing verified profiles. It means that if you encounter someone famous, you will know it's really them. The company also announced it is currently seeing 26 million matches a day. 5. Sony says it will "never" exit the smartphone business. Hiroki Totoki, the CEO of Sony Mobile, has given an interview reaffirming the company's commitment to the mobile business — despite its recent struggles. 6. Facebook is revamping its video player, letting users pop videos out of the newsfeed and move them wherever they want on the page. It's part of the social networking giant's efforts to juice up its video offerings to take on YouTube. 7. Amazon may be forced to stop showing the names of products it doesn't sell in search results. The online retail giant currently displays competitors' products if a customer searches for an item from a brand that doesn't sell on the site. 8. Google is facing increasing pressure to extend the "right to be forgotten" to US users. Currently, the ability to have search results about yourself removed in certain circumstances is only implemented in Europe. But US privacy group Consumer Watchdog is lobbying the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether Google should introduce the controversial "right" in the US too. 9. Greece is losing financial access to the internet. Capital controls put in place in the country have left Greeks unable to pay for internet services like iTunes and cloud storage services. 10. The team that discovered Heartbleed have found another "high severity" security flaw affecting the internet. Heartbleed was the biggest security issue discovered in 2014, and researchers think they have now found another similar problem.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 6 mind-blowing facts about Greece's economy

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Google is years ahead when it comes to the cloud, but it's happy the world is catching up

At this week's DockerCon in San Francisco, about 2,500 developers and engineers gathered to discuss software containers — a much-beloved technology made popular by hot, billion-dollar startup Docker.  Developers love software containers becuase they let you write an application once and run it anywhere, from your laptop all the way up to a big public cloud like Google's, without needing to change a single line of code. It's simple and powerful, and makes it easy for coders to be productive without worrying about the servers they're running on. In fact, software containers are such a good idea that Google has put them to use for the better part of a decade behind the scenes to run literally every piece of its own websites. As of last year, Google makes two billion new containers a week, as reported by The Register. That's because, while Docker may have made the idea of containers easy for average developers to use, a more basic version has been a feature of the Linux operating system for servers for many years. Google developed containers out to suit its own needs early on in its corporate lifespan, and has been building on the concept ever since.  Playing the movie "We often say 'we're playing the movie,'" says Google Senior Staff Software Engineer Brendan Burns. In other words, everything going on with Docker and software containers right now is something Google has dealt with itself, one way or another.  Almost exactly a year ago, Google released Kubernetes (Greek for "Pilot" or "Helmsman"), a piece of free software for managing containers of which Burns led the development. It was designed to take a lot (but not all) of the stuff that Google uses to wrangle its own container usage and package it up in a way that developers could take advantage of with Docker.  Kubernetes has made Google kind of a rockstar in the Docker world — one of the world's largest technology companies is offering tools and expertise to help developers crest a growing wave. That love has encouraged Google developers on to keep engaged with the Docker community, Burns says. "So many people at Google never get to talk about what they do," Burns says, but Kubernetes has thrust a lot of the back-end stuff that never gets any glory straight into the spotlight.  In fact, right before our conversation started, a random DockerCon attendee wanted to take a selfie with Burns (he acknowledged it was weird, but guessed that there was a scavenger hunt going on for DockerCon on-stage speakers). From a more mercenary standpoint, Burns says his job is "to sell data centers." Kubernetes and the Google Container Engine service, which takes Kubernetes and automates a lot of it for heavy-duty business users, launched into beta at DockerCon this week. Those are big features to draw users to the Google Cloud Platform, where customers can swipe a credit card and get access to huge amounts of computing power hosted from Google's big old data centers.  Down from the mountain At the same time, Burns says that the last thing he wants to do is come to conferences like DockerCon and tell developers the best way to take advantage of containers. After all, most Docker users are approaching a completely different set of problems, and Google is willing to learn.  "We don't have all the answers," Burns says. "We did it one way, but that doesn't mean it's the right way."  At Google, Burns says, building software is an internal affair. If, on the backend, a Google developer is having an issue with a database or web server not running quite right, you have to call the person in the company who developed that service in the first place and get them to fix it. It's all Google stuff talking to other Google stuff behind the scenes, Burns says. Outside of Google, though, apps are built from a lot of moving parts that can come from many different vendors. One part of the app might use a MySQL database, and another might use a Redis database, and the way they "talk" to the main app can be totally different from each other. "The way the world builds applications is different from how Google builds applications," Burns says.  Burns describes this as a very classic Google sort of problem: The mismatch between how Google likes to do things and how the rest of the world likes to do things. He cites an anecdote of how internally, Google loves long, drawn out Gmail conversation threads that can go into the "hundreds." But according to Burns, the Gmail team found that the average thread length outside of Google is just over one single, solitary message. In short, Google has a lot to learn from watching how people use technology in production.   Google thinks you'll pick its cloud Docker and other software containers have this huge potential to upend the cloud market. Since your code can run anywhere, there's nothing stopping you from picking it up from one cloud vendor and dropping it elsewhere. Even Google's Kubernetes, which again is free software, can be run in competing clouds at the developer's whim. That's not really a problem for Google, though. Burns says that with its container know-how, and everything it's learned by being a part of the community, Google Cloud Platform will be the best place to run these Docker containers — even as competitors like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure look to include container support on their own platforms.  "Running those things on the Google Cloud just makes more sense," Burns says.  Still, Docker is a fast-growing startup and a fast-growing technology, and Burns says that even if he's seen this movie before, there are still plenty of twists and turns to come.  "I don't know the ending this time," Burns says. SEE ALSO: Two simple reasons IBM loves free software Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here are all of Google's awesome science projects — that we know about

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Cyber crime unit warns of social media network virus comeback

Greece’s Cyber Crime Unit is warning Internet users of the reappearance of a virus targeting users on social media network Facebook.

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Patras University Student Develops Eye-Typing Technology App

The University of Patras in Greece has once again been put under the spotlight, thanks to Evangelos Skodras’ double distinction for the development of EyeType. Skodras is a PhD student at the Wire Communications Laboratory of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras. Skodras developed an Android app called EyeType that gives the user the possibility to control what is typed on the device’s keyboard with his eyes, by recording the person’s eye movement. This is a real innovation in the field that will enable people suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), LIS syndrome (Locked-In Syndrome) or quadriplegia – who are only able to move their eyes – to communicate by using a smartphone or tablet. The PhD student has received two international awards in 2015 for the app, from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the European Association of Students of Electrical Engineering (EESTEC). At the EESTEC competition, EyeType took home the innovation award. The category included a total of 51 Android apps submitted by 717 researchers from 54 countries.

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Corfu School Students Create Innovative App to Help Other Children

Fifty secondary school students from Corfu, Greece, motivated by the idea of helping children with special needs, worked hard to create an innovative mobile phone application. The app allows children in trouble or panic to contact their family with just two moves. The application, called Never Lost, was created as a useful tool for all children and answers some questions that a child may have when lost, or found in an emergency situation, such as “Who am I? I’m lost. How can I get help? How can I let my parents know where I am? How can I find out where I am?” The idea was born at the Amfipagiton middle school, in northern Corfu. However, the students had to work with older students from the high school in Kato Korakiana and the 2nd and 4th high schools of Corfu, since their programming knowledge was limited. Amfipagiton computer science teacher Sotiris Fotiou explained how easily a child gets help immediately using the innovative application. “When you open the application, you can see 6 large buttons. The first is ‘Call,’ while the others are ‘Send message,’ ‘see your position,’ ‘send your position,’ ‘send a map of your position.’ When the user presses the call button, the phone automatically calls the person’s parents. If the user presses the send message button, it will automatically send a pre-written message that reads: ‘I am lost.’ When in trouble, the user can press the position button and a map will automatically appear at the child’s parents’ phones,” said Fotiou. Furthermore, the teacher added that the students were excited to work on the project. They collaborated via Skype and they also visited the other schools along with their teachers. When the application was completed, it was uploaded on the internet and it can be downloaded for free. The application is useful for all children, given that they are using a mobile phone, but even for the elderly. Three weeks ago, it was presented at a computer conference in Kastoria, northern Greece, where it attracted much interest both from within the country and abroad.

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Nokia Networks gets Greek railway network order

Nokia Networks said Thursday it will upgrade the GSM-R rail communication network for Greece's national railway operator, OSE. The company said ...

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Quizdom: A Greek Smartphone Knowledge Game App

Quizdom is a new Greek smartphone app game that has managed to get more than 800,000 downloads in less than nine months. The popular knowledge game is quite simple to operate. First Android and IOS users need to download the free app on their smartphone and create an account. After the first steps are complete, the app users can choose an opponent either from their friends list (through e-mail, Viber or Facebook), or from the thousands of other Quizdom users. After choosing an opponent, the player has to choose 2 out of the 16 question categories (Sports, Celebrities, History, Geography, Politics, Cinema, Music, Health, Games, Religion, Business, Arts, 20th Century, Science, Language and Food). To win the player must answer correctly and quickly to 16 questions from 4 different categories (2 selected by each player). In case of a tie, the fastest player wins. The game also gives players the ability to communicate via chat with their opponent, but also submit their own questions, contributing to game’s updates. The app creators, Triantafullos Xylouris, Nikolas Georgoudelis, Panayiotis Vourtsis and Pantelis gave an interview to the Greek newspaper Eleftheros Typos where they explained that some Greeks spend up to 8 hours a day in front of their smartphone screens answering the games 30 million questions. The reason that the game became so popular so fast is because, according to its creators, it combines the elements of competition, socialization and entertainment, since it enables users to expand their knowledge and play with friends, or to make new ones.

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Different Prefixes, Same Meaning: Cyber, Digital, Net, Online, E-, Virtual

This week, the Global Cyberspace Conference takes place in The Hague (16-17 April). In March, UNESCO hosted a conference on Connecting the Dots in Digital Space. The NETmundial Initiative had a meeting in Stanford recently. In early May, the Freedom Online Conference will take place in Ulan Bator (for dates and a list of events see the 2015 timeline). In the Internet field, prefix-switching (cyber/digital/net/online/e-/) does not usually change the meaning of the word or phrase. The Hague conference could have been called the DIGITAL or ONLINE Space Conference; NETmundial could easily be CYBERmundial. Although these events have different prefixes, they deal with the same set of issues defined by the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development as 'international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet'. They address all or some of 40+ issues that can be classified in seven baskets, as illustrated in Diplo's 'IG Building Under Construction'. Why do prefixes matter, if they can be used interchangeably? First, subtle trends in the use and implications of prefixes have started to emerge. 'E-' is used typically for commerce, 'cyber' for security and crime, and 'digital' for development divides, to name a few. These trends are confirmed by a recent DiploFoundation study analysing nine years of Internet Governance Forum (IGF) transcripts. For example, the study shows a clear trend for the use of 'cyber' in discussion on security-related issues. This process is not surprising. Each policy field tends to develop its own vocabulary, and to frame discussion in certain ways. However, there is a potential risk if the entire Internet policy field comes to be framed through one lens, such as security. For example, although the EU has the Digital Agenda as its core Internet-related document, the EU Council introduced the concept of cyber diplomacy. One would have expected digital diplomacy to be a more appropriate name for a foreign affairs representation of the EU Digital Agenda. In the USA one can identify a wide range of prefixes. The e-Diplomacy unit of the US State Department manages its Digital Diplomacy (use of the Internet in diplomatic activities) and runs, for example, a virtual embassy to Iran. On the national level there is a cybersecurity strategy. A similar 'prefix salad' can be found in many other countries worldwide. Survey: What is your favorite PREFIX in the Internet politics? The second reason prefixes matter is that different prefixes could create confusion for governments, companies and organisations that have to deal with Internet public policy issues. Different prefixes may convey subtle - and perhaps incorrect - implications about who should cover different issues. During a recent lecture tour in Asia, I realised how difficult is for governments to decide how to deal with these 'differences'. Who should be in charge of the various issues? Should it be the ministry for communication (digital) or security (cyber) or human rights (online) or...? For small countries with limited resources, this is becoming a real problem. In a way, by creating more possibilities to participate (more events and more modes of participation), we risk of creating a 'paradox of inclusion' (more events, but fewer possibilities for small states to participate actively in most of them). The same challenge of managing the cyber/net/virtual/e- avalanche of events faces companies and the non-governmental sector. Third, this process of covering similar issues under different titles may increase the difficulty of overcoming policy silos. Policy silos create sub-optimal coverage of multidisciplinary issues such as Internet governance. For example, one cannot effectively address cybersecurity without taking into consideration questions of privacy and freedom of expression, or business interests. Describing similar processes using different prefixes (cyber, digital, net,...) can accentuate the existing gap, making it even more complicated to bridge the policy silos. What can be done? One has to be realistic in attempts to make policy-making rational. In spite of all efforts, policy-making is rarely optimal. It will always have an element of irrationality, reflecting our imperfection as a society. Security people will meet in their own circles, while human rights, technical communities, and others will tend to stay in their own spaces. We have to accept this reality, but we should not cease our efforts to have multidisciplinary coverage of issues. In many cases we will fail, but the efforts should be made. A few practical steps: Invest heavily in facilitation of communication among different policy communities (human rights, security, technology). It is not enough to put different communities around a table and expect to have effective communication. Creative and careful facilitation is required. Reduce the 'lost in translation' risk among different professions by providing simple explanations of different concepts. Sometimes this will involve explanation of homographs such as 'protocol'. Protocol in diplomacy is not the same as protocol in Internet technical communication (although both of them include 'handshaking'). Create structural encouragements for communication among different professional groups. The IGF has been particularly successful in fostering diversity in the composition of discussion panels and other activities. In essence, all of these prefixes (cyber, digital, net,..) refer to the same thing - the Internet. While the process of differentiating meanings and claiming terminology is a natural one, we should be aware that we are creating differences, rather than naming differences which already exist. For background reading on Internet governance and digital politics you can consult the book 'An Introduction to Internet governance'. For events and resources you can consult the Geneva Internet Platform and DiploFoundation. You can follow Jovan Kurbalija on Twitter at @jovankurbalija _____________________________________________ Annex - Short Guide for Digital Prefix Etymology The etymology of cyber goes back to the Ancient Greek meaning of 'governing'. Cyber came into use in our time via Norbert Weiner's book Cybernetics, dealing with information-driven governance. In 1984, William Gibson coined the word cyberspace in the science fiction novel Neuromancer. The growth of the use of the prefix cyber followed the growth of the Internet. In the late 1990s, almost anything related to the Internet was cyber: cyber community, cyber law, cyber sex, cybercrime, cyber culture, cyber... You named anything on the Internet and you had cyber. In the early 2000s, cyber gradually disappeared from wide use, remaining alive principally in security terminology. One of the reasons is that cyber was used in 2001 to name the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention. It is still the only international treaty in the field of Internet security. Today we have, for example, the USA's Cyberspace Strategy, the ITU's Global Cybersecurity Agenda; NATO's cyber defence policy, and Estonia's Cyber Defence Center of Excellence. E- is the abbreviation for 'electronic'. It got its first and most important use through e-commerce, as description of early commercialisation of the Internet. In the EU's Lisbon Agenda (2000), e- was the most frequently used prefix. E- was also the main prefix in the declarations of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS, Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005). The WSIS follow-up implementation is centred on action lines including e-government, e-business, e-learning, e-health, e-employment, e-agriculture, and e-science. Nonetheless, e- is not as present as it used to be. Even the EU has abandoned e- recently, trying, most likely, to distance itself from the failure of the EU's Lisbon Agenda. Today, the EU has a Digital Agenda for Europe. Digital refers to '1' and '0' - two digits which are the basis of whole Internet world. Ultimately, all software and programmes start with them. In the past, digital was used mainly in development circles to represent the digital divide. During the last few years, digital has started conquering Internet linguistic space. In addition to the EU, Great Britain now has digital diplomacy. Prefix Net almost disappeared after initial popularity, in particular, in Germany (Netzpolitik). It re-emerged with the growing importance of net neutrality discussion and last year with NETmundial in Sao Paolo (April 2014). Future of prefix Relevance of prefix Net will depend on the success of the N. a few years ago after Net was popular in early 2000s Virtual relates to the intangible nature of the Internet. Virtual introduces the ambiguity of being both intangible and, potentially, non-existent. Virtual reality could be both an intangible reality (something that cannot be touched), and a reality that does not exist (false reality). Academics and Internet pioneers used virtual to highlight the novelty of the Internet, and the emergence of 'a brave new world'. Virtual, because of its ambiguous meaning, rarely appears in policy language and international documents. You can find more information in the website 'Emerging Language of Internet Diplomacy'. Please let us know if you would like to receive updates. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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New app tracks Greek life studying

Previously, the process of logging study hours for those in greek life was tedious, but now, there's an app for that. My Greek Study is an application that ...

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Wicked Surveillance Is Abominable, Terrorism Is Worse.

Today's deadly attack at Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom of expression and on freedom of the press, core values of our own democracy. Such acts of terrorism are not the answer and cannot be accepted, even when such expression takes the form of controversial cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad, repeatedly published in the last months by the French satirical newspaper. This unprecedented attack comes about a month after the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) released a propaganda video calling on Muslims in France to carry out attacks there. While it is still unclear who was actually behind this episode, it cannot be ruled out that some local "Islamic fighters" could have decided to take up that call in their own hands. Today's deadly attack shows one more time that terrorism is an actual threat and that, in order to protect, monitor and prevent such attacks, Western nations must deploy sophisticated technologies and cooperate with each other. It is probably true that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is making a big mistake by spying on millions of people without compelling reasons -- but a bigger mistake would be to pursue a zero surveillance state. Smart intelligence and data gathering are necessary steps in a world so shaky and still marked by wars and conflicts. As repeatedly documented, terror groups take full advantage of the Internet and modern communication technologies. While "loose" or potential IS sympathizers can easily access their propaganda material circulating on mainstream media or TV outlets, more often than not Internet is the preferred channel for the following step -- to get in touch and/or even join those terror groups -- by reading their blog posts or social network feeds, downloading files and other original content. In his recent pivotal book, @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex, Shane Harris (Senior Correspondent at The Daily Beast reporter and former Foreign Policy contributor), details the importance of having access to the most advanced technologies to win today's wars or to protect a country's interests. However, Europe as a whole lags well behind the US in its approach to cyber-security and, despite their recent efforts, EU countries provide an uneven framework. While Germany and France have great intelligence and communication control infrastructures, other countries (i.e., Greece) allocate a very low-budget to such issues and still others lack basic technological knowledge -- thus exposing a deeper cultural problem, whereas cyber-security is clearly not on their priority list. As explained by cyber-security expert Stefano Mele, EU countries are currently drafting a document to pinpoint such issues and how to properly address them in regards to public policies and military involvement -- the so-called EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework. This is an initial step to improve communication security, provide local training and increase International cooperation to advance both defense and offensive strategies for each country and the entire EU as well. Needless to say, such documents drafted must then be applied on the ground in order to make a difference, something easier said than done. It is also worth noting that such collaborative efforts are in danger of being compromised by the lasting effects of last year's NSA revelations. Many are indeed worried by the on-going tension between Germany and the US, as exposed again by Der Spiegel last week and the recent revelation about British surveillance operations against Belgium's largest telecommunications provider, Belgacom. One thing is certain, though: if many people will still believe that we only need protection from the NSA, we may be stuck, forced to deal with the aftermath of more terror attacks at any level. Maybe broader cooperation and funding efforts could not prevent such tragic events such as today's attack in Paris, but in many other instances they will surely have an actual impact. Prevention is key, and sometime select surveillance strategies are needed -- it is a small price to pay to be better safe than sorry.

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30-Year-Old Computer Engineer from Corfu Tackles ‘Fake Facebook’

His aim is to tackle as many of the 81 million fake facebook profiles as possible, that most users have encountered at least once. The 30-year-old computer engineer from Corfu, Giorgos Delaportas, who created the unique program that automatically examines and classifies a profile as ”fake” within less than two seconds, explains to Greek Reporter what led him to the creation of ”FAKE FB – Fake Profile Examiner” and underlines the dangers hidden behind model-like profile photos that are simply… unreal. ”It was a while ago when I got fed up of repeatedly declining friend requests from fake users. Starting from annoying electronic hawkers, people hidden behind made up names and stolen photos can go far beyond that, to stealing personal information or blackmailing. Every time I was clicking ‘ignore’ I was thinking that there does not exist a program that could instantly classify the requests for me, before even accepting them. Two months after I got the last request from such a profile, ‘FAKE FB’ was finally developed,” Μr. Delaportas says. Its installation as well as its use is simple, while the only condition is the use of Google Chrome as a web browser. To download it users can visit the Chrome Web Store where it is available for free, following three simple steps: Click on the blue ”installation” button, press ”OK” to agree with terms and conditions and the shortcut will appear on Chrome, restart the browser and ”FAKE FB” is ready to use. ”The program uses advanced A.I mechanisms and several metrics to examine profiles that look suspicious. It is so simple that it almost feels like magic,” explains Μr. Delaportas, adding that ”according to facebook official stats, there are at least one billion active users. It is impossible to figure out the purpose of each one of the strangers that might interact with you. Underage users are vulnerable out there and can easily become an easy ‘catch.’ One of the main reasons ‘FAKE FB’ was developed is to protect children, while it is impossible for parents to control every cyber step they take. In any case, younger users can now use the program to check if they should accept or decline friend requests from people they do not know.” Being available for almost three months, ”FAKE FB” has managed to attract more than 550 users and Μr. Delaportas remains confident that this gap in users’ personal life protection will lead the program to success. ”I could not believe that there was not a single program for such a usual problem that all facebook users have to deal with from time to time,” he concludes.

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Unemployed Greeks to get free IT lessons

The Greek Manpower Organization (OAED) is launching a pilot program to test a scheme created in cooperation with Microsoft and aimed at training jobless people in information technology for free, with the eventual aim of expanding to all registered unempl... ...

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