Hellenic Scientific Council for the Information Society (HSCIS) was established in 2001. The main purpose of HSCIS is to contribute to the development of the Information Society within a privacy preserving environment, safeguarding the rights of individuals and secure information – communication systems and electronic transactions.
The Scientific Council for the Information Society is organizing a series of international conferences every two years with the title eDemocracy Conference. The conferences are organized with the support of Academic Institutions of Greece and abroad.
Conference proceedings from 2009 to 2017 was published by 
With previous speakers including Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum, Prof. Dr. Udo Helmbrecht (ENISA’s Executive Director), Dr. Spyridon Arvanitis (Senior Research Economist of KOF/ETH), Prof. Dr. Elias Carayannis (Professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at George Washington University School of Business), Giovanni Buttarelli (the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)), Peter Parycek (PhD, MSc, is Professor for E-Governance and Head of the Center for E-Governance at the Danube University Krems), Steve Purser, HSCIS has always strived to provide the conferences with top academic, industry and policy speakers from around the world. Topics covering the very latest developments in eGovernment, Privacy, fundamental technological achievements in computer science, as well as inspiring talks to help you achieve more.
Prof. Dr. Udo Helmbrecht
ENISA’s Executive Director
Prof. Dr. Udo Helmbrecht is ENISA’s Executive Director since October 16th, 2009.
Udo Helmbrecht was appointed after making a statement to the European Parliament and replying to MEPs’ questions on 16 April, 2009. ENISA’ s Managemnet Board nominated him from a list of candidates proposed by the European Commission, following a presentation of his visions. In September 2014 ENISA’s Management Board decided to extend the Director’s term of office for five years.
Prof. Helmbrecht is assisted by a Permanent Stakeholders’ Group and ad hoc Working Groups on scientific and technical matters.
Prior to his appointment, Udo Helmbrecht served as the President of the German Federal Office for Information Security, the BSI, for six years, during 2003-2009. In 2010, Udo Helmbrect was bestowed with the title of Honorary Professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.
Learn more about Professor Udo Helmbrecht
Prof. Dr. Elias Carayannis
Professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at George Washington University School of Business
Dr. Elias G. Carayannis is full professor of science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as co-founder and co-director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and director of research on science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, European Union Research Center, (EURC) at the School of Business of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Carayannis’ teaching and research activities focus on the areas of strategic government-university-industry R&D partnerships, technology road-mapping, technology transfer and commercialization, international science and technology policy, technological entrepreneurship and regional economic development.
Carayannis is the co-founder and co-director of the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and Director of Research on Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the European Union Research Center (EURC) at the GW School of Business.
He is fluent in English, French, German, Greek, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Learn more about Professor Elias Carayannis
Dr. Spyridon Arvanitis
Senior Research Economist of KOF/ETH
Spyros Arvanitis is a Senior Research Economist of KOF/ETH (Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich. He is head of the Industrial Economics Research Group of this institute (together with Dr H. Hollenstein). Dr Arvanitis holds doctoral degrees from the University of Zurich (economics) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (chemistry). He has published on economics of innovation, technology diffusion, firm performance and market dynamics.
Antigoni Papanikolaou
Corporate, External & Legal Affairs Director for Microsoft Greece, Cyprus & Malta
Antigoni Papanikolaou is Corporate, External & Legal Affairs Director for Microsoft Greece, Cyprus & Malta.
She received her law degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and holds a LL.M from the College of Europe, Belgium, on European Legal Studies. Within the framework of ERASMUS Program, she also attended the LL.M program on EU Law of the University of Leuven, Belgium. Antigoni also did a training with the Commission of European Union, Belgium, and had an internship at the European Court of First Instance, Luxembourg, first at the Cabinet of the Belgian Judge, Prof. Koen Lenaerts and then of the Greek Judge, Mr. Michael Vilaras. Prior to joining Microsoft, Antigoni worked as associate lawyer to “Helen M. Papaconstantinou & Associates”, Athens, and then as in-house legal counsel for “Coca-Cola Hellas SA”, Athens, where, among others, supported the local sponsorship activation and the Torch Relay program of “The Coca-Cola Company” for Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
Afterwards, she moved as in-house counsel to “Papastratos CMC SA”, a Philip Morris International Affiliate, Athens, where she was in charge, among others, of the legal support of sales and marketing departments of the company and member of their management teams. At 2012, Antigoni joined “Microsoft Hellas SA”, Athens, as Legal & Corporate Affairs Director for the Greek entity and in her current role supports the Greek, Cypriot and Maltese business units on a wide range of commercial matters with a special emphasis on Cloud Computing, data protection, IP licensing, antitrust and compliance matters while she is also member of the local Leadership team.
Giovanni Buttarelli
European Data Protection Supervisor
Giovanni Buttarelli is the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). On 4 December 2014, he was appointed by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council. He will serve a five year term in this position. Previously, he served as Assistant EDPS, from January 2009 until December 2014. He is also a member of the Italian judiciary with the rank of judge of the Court of Cassation.
Before joining the EDPS, Buttarelli worked as Secretary General of the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, the Italian Data Protection Authority, between 1997 and 2009.
Giovanni Buttarelli was born in 1957 in Frascati, a little town near Rome. He graduated “cum laude” from La Sapienza University in Rome in 1984, where he also worked as a teaching assistant at the Faculty of Law. Specifically, he worked with Prof. Franco Cordero on Criminal Procedure until 1990. He was appointed as a Professor at the Faculty of Law at Lumsa University in Rome, in 2005, where he lectures on the Protection of Personal data and Fundamental Rights in Italy and Europe. In 1989, he was made a judge at the Tribunal of Avezzano.
He was also appointed to the High Level Policy Panel of the European Project on “Public Perception of Security and Privacy: Assessing Knowledge, Collecting Evidence, Translating Research Into Action – PACT (285635)” by the Peace Institute of Oslo.
Along with 138 other national representatives, he signed the Italian Manifest for a Digital Agenda in 2011. He is also a regular contributor to specialised books and journals, at both the European and national level and is the author of a significant number of papers.
Steve Purser
Head of Core Operations Department at European Union Network and Information Security Agency
Steve Purser was born in the UK and attended the universities of Bristol and East Anglia where he obtained a BSc. in Chemistry and a PhD in Chemical Physics respectively. He started work in 1985 in the area of software development, subsequently progressing to project management and consultancy roles. From 1993 to 2008, he occupied the role of Chief Information Security Officer for a number of financial institutions. He joined ENISA in December 2008 and is currently responsible for all operational activities of the Agency.
Steve is currently a member of several Steering Boards and Advisory Committees, including notably the Steering Board of the CERT EU and the Programme Board of the EU Cyber Crime Centre. In the area of standards, he is the ENISA representative on the ISO SC 27 working group. As Head of Core Operations, he regularly represents ENISA in international conferences on information security.
He was a co-founder of the ‘Club de Securité des Systèmes Informatiques au Luxembourg’ (CLUSSIL) and has frequently published articles in the specialised press. He is also the author of ‘A Practical Guide to Managing Information Security’ (Artech House, 2004).
Peter Parycek
Head of the Center for E-Governance at the Danube University Krems.
Peter Parycek, PhD, MSc, is Professor for E-Governance and Head of the Center for E-Governance at the Danube University Krems. As a lawyer and graduate of the Master’s program Telematics, his work is at the intersection of legal policy, social and technological developments. His research and project priorities include eGovernance, eDemocracy and eGovernment. He is responsible for the conference series CeDEM (International Conference for e-Democracy and Open Government, www.donau-uni.ac.at/cedem) and the open access journal JeDEM (eJournal of eDemocracy and Open Government, http://www.jedem.org).
Dr. Severin Löffler
Assistant General Counsel, CEE at Microsoft Deutschland
Assistant General Counsel, CEE
Dr. Severin Löffler has held the position of Assistant General Counsel for Central Eastern Europe at Microsoft since September 2013. In this function he runs the Legal and Corporate Affairs department and is a Member of the Senior Management Board of Corporate Vice President, Don Grantham.
Löffler has been employed at Microsoft Deutschland since February 2006. He was a member of the German Senior Leadership Team and ran the Legal and Corporate Affairs department of Microsoft Germany GmbH from 2008-2013 before moving to CEE. Prior to joining Microsoft he worked for the international law firm Clifford Chance for seven years. One of his focus areas was to advise IT and technology companies on licensing issues as well as transactions, M&A projects and outsourcing. He began his legal career with the law firm Friedrich, Ernst, Engelhard & Partner in Munich, Germany.
The fully qualified lawyer attained a doctorate in International Media Law.
In his free time Severin Löffler is an active sportsman whose hobbies include skiing, cycling and jogging. His great passion is riding motorcycles.
Prof. Sokratis Katsikas
Rector of the Open University of Cyprus
Sokratis K. Katsikas was born in Athens, Greece, in 1960. He received the Diploma in Electrical Engineering from the University of Patras, Patras, Greece in 1982, the Master of Science in Electrical & Computer Engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, USA, in 1984 and the Ph.D. in Computer Engineering & Informatics from the University of Patras, Patras, Greece in 1987.
He is the Rector of the Open University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus, and Professor with the Center for Cyber and Information Security, Department of Information Security and Communications, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
His research interests lie in the areas of information and communication systems security and of estimation theory and its applications. His research activity over the past 30 years has resulted in the publication of 36 books; 32 book chapters; 85 journal publications (of which 9 invited); and 119 publications in conference proceedings (of which 30 invited). According to Googlescholar, his research work has been cited 2.886 times and his h-index is 27. He has participated in more than 60 funded national and international R&D projects in his areas of research interest. He is serving on the editorial board of several scientific journals, and has served on/chaired the technical programme committee of more than 500 international scientific conferences. He chairs the Steering Committee of the ESORICS Conferences.
Prof. Dr. Udo Helmbrecht
ENISA’s Executive Director
Prof. Dr. Udo Helmbrecht is ENISA’s Executive Director since October 16th, 2009.
Udo Helmbrecht was appointed after making a statement to the European Parliament and replying to MEPs’ questions on 16 April, 2009. ENISA’ s Managemnet Board nominated him from a list of candidates proposed by the European Commission, following a presentation of his visions. In September 2014 ENISA’s Management Board decided to extend the Director’s term of office for five years.
Prof. Helmbrecht is assisted by a Permanent Stakeholders’ Group and ad hoc Working Groups on scientific and technical matters.
Prior to his appointment, Udo Helmbrecht served as the President of the German Federal Office for Information Security, the BSI, for six years, during 2003-2009. In 2010, Udo Helmbrect was bestowed with the title of Honorary Professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.
Learn more about Professor Udo Helmbrecht
John Strangas
Prof. of Panteion University of Athens
JOHN STRANGAS, Prof. of Panteion University of Athens, PhD in Law of Hamburg University. Lawyer in the Athens Bar.
Former Professor of Law School of Democritus University of Thrace and Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Hamburg.Professor of General Law Department and since the beginning of this year of the Department of Political Science and History of the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. He has taught at the Law School of the University of Rome I.Former Vice President of the Greek Philosophical Society. President of the Greek Society for legislation.Former Vise President and now President of the Greek Society of Legal Informatics and Legal Cybernetics.Full member of the Internationale Vereiningung für Rechts und Sozialphilosophie (deutsche Sektion), the Societé Francaise de Philosophie du Droit, the Societa Italiana di filosofa Juridica e Politica and other scientific societies.Knight on price of the Italian and French Republics.He has participated in many international conferences and has lectured at the Universities of Goettingen, Salerno, Münster Westfalen, Paris II, Seville, Madrid III, Alcala de Henares, Heidelberg and Potsdam.
