User:Somara S/sandbox

I'm working on the following three articles. The one about Andrés Sepúlveda does not exist yet, but there is a Spanish article about his case.

e-Estonia

[Already exists, so don't need to write a lead]

Electronic ID Card

In 2002 the Estonian government issued all of its citizens an electronic ID card that serves as a national identity document and allows them to access e-services including internet banking, digital health records, and e-voting. The ID card is embedded with a chip that utilizes 2048-bit public key encryption, so that the card can be used to authenticate identity as well as to create a digital signature. Using advanced encryption, the system has undergone a decade without one security breach. In November 2016 there were over 1.2 million active cards, placing the e-card penetration rate at over 90%.

International Response

Other countries have attempted to implement a digital ID card, including Britain who in 2010 had spent ₤257 million of a planned £4.5 billion on an ID card scheme. However, none of these attempts have yet been successful as policy makers are challenged with high costs and public disapproval. As of 2016, the largest country that has undertaken an ID card scheme is Japan, which announced in October 2015 that it would implement an electronic ID card using Estonia's example. The announcement came after a meeting between Akira Amari, the Japanese Finance Minister, and Taavi Rõivas, the Estonian Prime Minister, to discuss Estonia's e-services and digital societies.

E-Voting

Discussions surrounding the possibility of e-voting in Estonia started in the early 2000s with the Minister of Justice, Märt Rask, making a public announcement regarding the introduction of e-voting in 2001. In 2002 the government created a legislative basis on which e-voting could be conducted and one year later the oversight body, the National Electoral Committee, was established. Although other countries hold "e-elections" by using electronic voting machines at polling stations, Estonia's implementation of e-voting allows citizens to vote remotely via the internet. In October 2005 the Estonian local elections became the first in the world to use remote e-voting, although only 2% of the electorate used this option to vote. However, the percentage of citizens using internet voting increased to 5.4% in March 2007 at the national parliamentary elections. Despite the security risks surrounding remote e-voting, many regard the case of Estonia as successful. A report published by Madise, Maaten, and Vinkel concluded that:

"No failures were found in the technical system of e-voting. No cases of buying e-votes have become public and no legal proceedings were initiated. The legitimacy of election results has not been contested by referring to e-voting."

It is still contested whether the presence of e-voting increases voter turnout. Based on telephone surveys following the 2005 local elections, a report found that 67.9% of e-voters would have voted even if the remote option was unavailable and only 4.9% of e-voters would certainly not have voted without the remote option. Because 4.9% of e-voters, which only constituted 2% of the electorate, would not have voted if the e-voting option was unavailable, it is difficult to conclude that e-voting has a significant effect on voter turnout.

E-Learning

E-learning is defined by the Estonian National Program for e-learning in General Education as follows:

"e-learning takes place both inside and outside formal education establishments, using ICT devices, the Internet, virtual learning environments and other digital learning means of instruction".

The general consensus in Estonia is that ICT skills are necessary for improved employability, social mobility, and access to public services among others. In light of this, several projects in the late 1990s were undertaken by the Estonian government to improve digital literacy, from a primary school level and beyond, and to establish greater connectivity in the country. The core organizations in the public e-learning sphere are the Tiger Leap Foundation, the Estonian Information Technology Foundation, the Estonian eUniversity consortium, and the eVocational school.

Tiger Leap Foundation

In 1997 the Tiger Leap Foundation was initiated by the Estonian government alongside private and academic organizations to provide computers and internet connections in all schools by 2000. Ave Lauringson, one of the directors of the program, stated the importance of teaching coding in schools and Tiger Leap has since started to introduce programming to seven year olds as part of ProgeTiiger.

Andrés Sepúlveda

Andrés Sepúlveda is a Colombian hacker who was arrested for rigging elections throughout Latin America, most notably the national Mexican elections in 2012. As of 2016, Sepúlveda was serving a ten year sentence in a Colombian prison for charges that include use of malicious software, conspiring to commit a crime, violation of personal data laws, and espionage.

Background

Sepúlveda was born in Bucaramanga, a Colombian city north of Bogotá. His family was poor and moved constantly due to death threats from drug traffickers. These threats were targeted at Sepúlveda's father who was an activist that tried to help farmers find alternative crops to grow to coca plants. After failing school at 15, Sepúlveda went to live in Bogotá with his father, later enrolling in a technology school where he learned to code. Sepúlveda claims to have started his career as an election hacker in 2005 when he was recruited by Juan José Rendón. According to Sepúlveda, he was visiting the headquarters of a party associated with Alvaro Uribe, where his older brother was working on congressional campaigns. Sepúlveda scanned the office's wireless network and was able to download confidential files from the computer of Rendón who was working as a strategist for the party. Once Rendón discovered this security breach, he hired Sepúlveda immediately. Since then, Sepúlveda has admitted to rigging elections in at least eight countries including Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and Costa Rica.

Election Hacking

Sepúlveda started out with defacing campaign websites, breaking into the donor bases of other candidates, and other similar small tasks, but he soon began to increase the scale of his jobs. He claims that the pinnacle of his career was the Mexican presidential election in 2012. Putting together a team of hackers to steal campaign strategies, manipulate social media platforms, and install spyware in the offices of other candidates, Sepúlveda used his budget of $600,000 to help elect Enrique Peña Nieto. Sepúlveda also designed an algorithm called the Social Media Predator which automatically creates multiple twitter accounts to flood constituents' newsfeeds with posts supporting his candidate. Although Peña Nieto's government has denied election rigging allegations, a representative from the opposition party has requested an investigation by the National Electoral Institute.

Leapfrogging

[Already exists so don't need to write lead]

Technology Leapfrogging

Technology leapfrogging refers to the use of an advanced technology in a field where the immediate prior technology had not yet been adopted. Often the term is used to refer to the adoption of ICT in developing countries in order to accelerate economic growth and development. For example, the the adoption of the mobile phone can be defined as technology leapfrogging because it allows developing countries to catch up to developed countries without needing to adopt the immediate prior technology, which in this case is the fixed line technology of the 20th century. Although there are great economic benefits associated with technology leapfrogging, there are certain prerequisites that need to be met. For example, Thailand's plan to expand its use of ICT technology could only be successful if the country's policymakers ensured that there were adequate skills, education, and training initiatives to complement the introduction of ICT. Technology leapfrogging is used not only in the context of development, but also that of sustainable development. India and China, for example, were able to reap the benefits of wind technology by first importing advanced wind turbines.

The concept of technology leapfrogging is consistent with the convergence theory: the idea that developing countries will catch up to developed countries because developing countries' rates of growth are much higher. However, not all agree with the convergence theory because there are limitations on technology transfer, such as the need for absorptive capabilities, intellectual property rights, and the need for complementary technologies.