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ERCIM News No. 90 (July 2012)

NEXT DEADLINE FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: Friday 11 May 2012

Articles have to be sent to the local editor for your country (see About ERCIM News) or to the central editor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please read the guidelines below before submitting an article

The sections of ERCIM News 90 are :

  • Joint ERCIM Actions
  • Special theme: "Cybercrime and Privacy Issues"
  • Research and Innovation
  • Events
  • In Brief

Special Theme: Cybercrime and Privacy Issues

coordinated by:

- Jean-Jacques Quisquater (Université catholique de Louvain)
- Solange Ghernaouti-Hélie (Université de Lausanne)
- Peter Martini (Fraunhofer FKIE)

Cybercrime refers to criminal activity that involves computers and the Internet. This includes anything from downloading illegaly music to stealing money from online bank accounts. It also includes offences such as creating and distributing viruses or botnets on the Internet or fraudulent use of confidential business or personal information.

"It is estimated that, worldwide, more than one million people become victims of cybercrime every day. The cost of cybercrime could reach an overall total of USD 388 billion worldwide." (from an EU press release, March 28, 2012). The level of cybercrime is thus very impressive and research about it an urgent action.

Based on Art. 13 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and on Art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, digital privacy should be considered as a fundamental human
right. By extension, it includes the protection of personal data, the right of freedom of movement and of expression on the Internet. Digital privacy relies upon adequate information and communication technology’s uses and on legal and technical measures related to fair commercial’s practices and processing of personal data and the fight against cybercrime. Privacy could be also defined as preventing intrusions, unwelcome search and unauthorized access, or as making (medical) decisions without coercion.

It is the aim of this ERCIM News special theme to provide a state of the art and report on the most recent European research activities and projects about cybercrime and privacy issues.

Submissions (short articles 700-800 words) are therefore solicited on fundamental and practical research results on, but not limited, the following topics (including uses, misuses, attacks, defenses):

  • cybercrime: economics
  • privacy: workplace surveillance, monitoring, traffic analysis, online investigation, online anonymity (Tor, voting)
  • prosecution: in face of anonymity, pseudonymization supporting and privacy-respecting prosecution
  • electronic commerce: money tracking, (anti-)money laundering,
  • localisation: IP, geomarketing, web analytics, Google street, cell phone ...
  • censorship: edited photos, detection
  • biometrics: cancelable biometrics, databases
  • forensics: litigation science, manipulation (detection, protection)
  • intellectual property rights (P2P)
  • identity theft: phone, financial, social networks
  • security breaches: including remote banking, PKI, smart cards, ...
  • cryptographic-related tools: minimum divulgation protocols for privacy, steganography
  • online social networks: crime investigation.

Articles have to be sent to the local editor for your country (see About ERCIM News) or to the central This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Please read the guidelines before submitting an article

Reviewing:
Articles submitted to the special theme are subject to a review process.

Guidelines for ERCIM News articles

Style: ERCIM News is read by a large variety of people. Keeping this in mind the article should be descriptive (emphasize more the 'what' than the 'how') without too much technical detail together with an illustration, if possible.

Contributions in ERCIM News are normally presented without formulas. One can get a long way with careful phrasing, although it is not always wise to avoid formulas altogether. In cases where authors feel that the use of formulas is necessary to clarify matters, this should be done in a separate box (to be treated as an illustration). However, formulas and symbols scattered through the text must be avoided as much as possible.

Length: Keep the article short, i.e. 700-800 words.

Format: Submissions preferably in ASCII text or MS Word. Pictures/Illustrations must be submitted as separate files (not embedded in a MS Word file) in a resolution/quality suitable for printing.

Structure of the article:
The emphasis in ERCIM News is on 'NEWS'. This should be reflected in both title and lead ('teaser').
Also: NO REVIEW ARTICLES!

  • Title
  • Author (full name, max. two or three authors)
  • Teaser:
    a few words about the project/topic. Printed in bold face, this part is intended to raise interest (keep it short).
  • Details describing:
    what the project/product is
    who is involved
    where it takes place
    why the research is being done
    when it was started/completed the aim of the project
    the techniques employed
    the orientation of the project
    future activities
    other institutes involved in this project
    co-operation with other ERCIM members in this field
  • References: For special theme articles: 1 - max. 3 references are mandatory. For articles for the section "Research and Devlopment", you can give a max. of three references (not mandatory)
  • Useful Link(s) (URLs separated from the refrences)
  • Contact address with:
    - full name of the author
    - phone number
    - e-mail address
  • Photos, illustrations:
    ERCIM News is a full color print magazine. Each article should be accompagnied by an illustration (photos, graphics), for example of the product, applications mentioned in the article, people working on the project, etc. (avoid as much as possible flow charts and screen dumps).
    Photos should be submitted in jpg or tiff format in a resolution suitable for printing (pictures taken from the web are usually in a quality suitable for printing), graphics in a vector format (svg, eps or ps).

Publishing in ERCIM News offers several advantages:

  • ERCIM News represents an excellent opportunity to present your research to a broad audience, also outside your own research community
  • the printed edition has a circulation of about 8,500 copies
  • some 6000 readers are subscribed to the online edition
  • the online edition has excellent visibility with a Google ranking of PR8
  • ERCIM News is widely distributed in the European Commission
  • ERCIM offers a free professional proof-reading service
  • Authors can reuse their articles; the copyright of the articles remains with the authors.
  • Articles of the sections "Special Theme" and "Research and Innovation" are referenced by DBLP