EU agency in Tallinn takes over management of Schengen information system

eu-LISA, the European Union Agency for Large-scale IT Systems in the area of Freedom, Security and Justice based in the Estonian capital Tallinn, will on Thursday take over operational management of the second-generation Schengen information system (SIS II).

The new security information system facilitates information sharing between member states’ authorities, spokespeople for the agency said. SIS II went live on 9 April but so far the European Commission was responsible for its day-to-day running.

Starting from 9 May, eu-LISA will ensure the round-the-clock functioning of SIS II and data exchanges between the central system and national systems, creating better opportunities for co-operation and exchange of information between EU member states and thus directly contributing to the safety of the people living and travelling in Europe, executive director of the agency Krum Garkov said.

The SIS II allows for an easy exchange of information between national border control authorities, customs and police authorities on persons who may have been involved in a serious crime. It also contains alerts on missing persons, in particular children, as well as information on certain property, such as banknotes, cars, vans, firearms and identity documents that may have been stolen, misappropriated or lost.

The SIS II consists of a central information system in Strasbourg, France, national systems of EU member states that have joined the Schengen area and a communication infrastructure connecting the central and national systems. As of today, the SIS II contains more than 47 million alerts which makes it the largest information system of its kind in the world.

eu-LISA started operations in Tallinn in December 2012. It is responsible for managing the SIS II, the visa information system VIS and the fingerprint database EURODAC.

Source: Estonian Review

Estonians offer credit scoring solution based on social media

Estonian company Big Data Scoring that is managed and co-owned by Erki Kert, former board member of LHV Pank, is offering credit scoring based on social media data, writes Äripäev.

The company is active at this point in Estonia, Finland and Poland.

The models used by Big Data Scoring predict on the basis of data from Facebook and other online sources which clients are more likely to default on their loan. In developing the model the company has gathered over 45 million lines of data on the internet which it has combined with real-life payment behavior data in a number of European countries over a period of more than a year.

Read more from BBN

http://www.bigdatascoring.com/

1.2 million internet purchases are made each month

Eesti Pank’s statistics show that in the past 11 months*, 1.2 million internet purchases have been made through Estonian banks, with a total turnover of 54 million euros. Of these purchases, 4/5 were payments within Estonia made through a bank link service, accounting for 40 million euros in value. The average size of these payments was 42 euros. Credit cards were used more over the internet for making payments for goods and services ordered from other countries. Credit card payments were made on average 235 thousand times a month for a total value of 15 million euros. Only one tenth of these payments were within Estonia. The average credit card payment was 64 euros.

Three methods are used for paying for internet purchases: card payments, internet bank payments through a bank link service, and wallet solutions like PayPal. Paying for purchases made over the internet within Estonia is convenient and safe. It is possible to use a bank link service so that the purchase can be made within the internet bank of the purchaser’s own bank, or else a credit card can be used. When MasterCard or VISA cards are used for internet payments, an additional password is required to ensure security. The payment options for cross-border payments are more limited and the most popular is card payments, though various wallet-solutions are also used. These are provided by various payment institutions and e-money organisations and allow consumers to pay for internet purchases more flexibly.

As internet shopping becomes ever more popular, it should be remembered that the payment solutions offered for paying for purchases are provided by both licensed payment service providers

and by some companies  that have no licence to offer such services. The Estonian Financial Supervision Authority supervises companies with licences, and its website provides information on whether a company offering payment solutions has a licence or not. Consumers using payment solutions offered by companies that are not under supervision do so at their own risk. Research by the European Commission shows that only rarely do internet purchasers have problems with criminal misuse of personal data, bank card data or internet bank passwords. The main worries of internet purchasers are more the difficulty of returning goods and getting reimbursed, problems with the delivery of goods, and inaccurate descriptions of goods on websites. The research also showed that awareness among consumers of the rights of internet purchasers is low.

Recommendations from the European Central Bank to payment service providers should be implemented by February 2015, increasing the security of internet payments around Europe and increasing consumer understanding. The new recommendations will also affect companies selling goods and services over the internet through payment service providers like banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions.

Data from Statistics Estonia show that one in five Estonian residents used the internet for purchases in 2012. The number of purchasers using the internet in Estonia grew by 11% or 24 thousand during 2012.

Information on buying goods and services over the internet can be found on the website of the Consumer Protection Board, which also gives a list of e-shops that do not meet all the legal requirements.

* Eesti Pank has been collecting and publishing statistics on internet purchases made through banks since May 2012.

Source: Bank of Estonia

Global IT report ranks Estonia 22nd

Estonia climbed two places to 22nd in the Global Information Technology Report 2013 of the World Economic Forum. Lithuania was ranked 32nd and Latvia was ranked 41st, reported ERR.

Estonia was the highest ranked Central and Eastern European country.

The table of rankings for 2013 was topped by Finland, followed by Singapore, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, Denmark, US and Taiwan.

Read more from BBN

Estonians develop a parking system for Moscow

Estonian company NOW! Innovations has been selected by the City of Moscow to develop a software solution that will manage Moscow’s paid parking system, writes Eesti Ekspress weekly.

The company’s CEO Üllar Jaaksoo who is former head of Tele2 in Estonia said that the solution will cover the mobile parking system and the touchcard system.

Similar solutions developed by NOW! Innovations are used in 14 towns in Belgium and 30 small towns in US.

Read more from BBN

Australian authorities suspect 30 young Estonians of visa fraud

Australian authorities say there are now about thirty cases where young Estonians are suspected of identity theft with the purpose of obtaining a new visa and extend their stay in the country, writes Postimees daily.

Australia has been issuing two-year work and leisure visas for Estonian citizens. To continue their stay in Australia, some young Estonians seem to have applied for a new name in Estonia and then filed papers to obtain a visa to Australia without letting Australian authorities know that they are already in the country.

The key to the scheme is that the persons applying for a new name can do so by simply using their digital signature and must not even travel to Estonia to apply for a new name if they are residing abroad at the time.

Read more from BBN

Elion hit by massive service disruption

Estonian telecommunications services company Elion that provides land-based telephone, digital TV and Internet provider services was hit by a massive service disruption in late Tuesday.

Hundreds of the company’s digital TV customers are still without picture and several other Elion services such as web hosting, hot.ee are disrupted.

Read more from BBN

Estonians made 100 million digital signatures

The Estonian ID-card has now been used to give 100 million digital signatures.

A holder of an ID-card gave the 100 000 000th digital signatuure at 17:27:54 on Monday, 3 December. In one day up to 125 000 digital signatuures are given, spokespeople for the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) said.

“One hundred million digital signatures testifies that we have entered a new phase in conducting business electronically. While several other countries are still only thinking about public e-services and the means needed for using them, we have implemented a working system,” RIA director general Jaan Priisalu said. He added that the ID-card still has potential for broader use, for example in encryption. “At a time when people and organisations move more and more confidential information over the internet, the ID-card is a very effective tool to ensure privacy,” he said.

The head of AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus (Certification Centre), Kalev Pihl, observed that the use of the ID-card for both identity authentication and digital signature has steadily increased over the past decade. “The electronic functions of the ID-card are used by around half a million people and 100 million digital signatures have been given, so it follows that these solutions are very necessary and accessible to users,” he said.

Since 2002 the ID-card has been used 164 million times for authentication of identity. Personalised data about users are pursuant to law made public only by way of exception, therefore the identity of the person who gave the 100 000 000th digital signature will not be established.

Source: Estonian Review

Top 10 Estonian startups

Based on input from Estonian startup thought leaders and investors, the weekly Estonian popular tech & startup themed radio show & podcast Restart (run by MP of the Estonian Parliament and a startup founder himself, Andrei Korobeinik) has selected the most promising Estonian startups to keep an eye on in 2013. Here is the list:

1.Transferwise – cheap money transfers. Charges a fraction of the price that banks and others charge for currency conversion. $1.3m seed round from Index Ventures, IA Ventures, Max Levchin (co-founder of PayPal), TAG, Seedcamp and others. Co-founded by Skype’s first employee. Seedcamp alumni.
2.Creative Mobile – mobile games. Hugely profitable. Drag Racing on Android has close to 100 million installs.
3.Erply – POS and ERP tools. In use at close to 100k seats. Largest customers have 10k employees. Seedcamp alumni.
4.ZeroTurnaround – Java productivity tools, loved by developers.
5.Marinexplore – marine data place for the ocean community. Only one in top 10 started in 2012. Raised $1.4m from Intertrust Technologies Corporation, Fredrik Astrup, Lars Erik Baustad, Marek Kiisa (Astrec Invest) and Ivar Siimar (WNB).
6.Grabcad – community of mechanical engineers & engineering workflow tools. $14 million raised from Charles River Ventures, Yammer’s David Sacks, Atlas Venture, Matrix Partners et al. Seedcamp and Techstars alumni.
7.Pipedrive – CRM and pipeline management tool. $1 m raised from TMT Investments, Andy McLoughlin, Christopher Muenchhoff and Angelpad. AngelPad alumni.
8.Vital Fields – farming weather forecasts. $318k from Estonian Development Fund et al. StartupWiseGuys alumni.
9.Flirtic.com – dating service.
10.Click and Grow – a self-watering flower pot. Over 80k units sold.

Read more from Jüri Kaljundi blog

Cloudmore plans to open a development center in Estonia

The cloud services provider Cloudmore plans to open a development centre in the Estonian capital Tallinn. The company will open similar centers also in Spain, Ireland and Poland, Enterprise Estonia (EAS) said.

According to the business support fund, Cloudmore chose Estonia due to availability of qualified labour, economic stability and potential co-operation partners. The value offer listing Estonia’s advantages was made by EAS.

The aim of Cloudmore, headquartered in the Swedish capital Stockholm, is to assist enterprises and organisations in making the transition to processing data in the cloud smoother. The company was founded in 2004 and entered the market in 2007. With representations in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Britain and Ireland, it employs 21 people.

Cloudmore’s patented IT administration platform is currently used by more than 5 000 organisations.

Source: Estonian Review