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IntroductionHigh levels of adoption and usage for the COVID Tracing Apps (CTA) among the population is a stipulated prerequisite for success of the implementation of these apps, aiming to mitigate the pandemic and track spreading of the virus more efficient and effectively. In the current study, the main objective was to investigate individuals' preferences in the intention to download a COVID-19 tracing app in a pilot-study in both the Netherlands and Turkey.MethodsWe conducted a discrete choice experimental study through an online survey in two countries (the Netherlands [N = 62] and Turkey [N = 83]), with four different attributes: (1) data protection (data protection vs. no information), (2) manufacturer (government vs. company), (3) reward (no reward vs. voucher as a reward) and (4) gaming (no gaming elements vs. gaming elements). Participants were recruited among a student population.ResultsThe results showed that data protection is one of the most important factors that significantly increases the probability to adopt a CTA. In general, the manufacturer, reward or gaming affected the probability to download the CTA less.DiscussionsHealth authorities worldwide have generally released high quality CTA, although scientific studies assessing the most important factors that describe and predict the intention to download is limited. Sensitive personal data is collected through these apps, and may potentially threaten privacy, equality and fairness, which are important attributes to take into account when developing or launching a CTA, following the results of this study.

: In the digitalized world, there is a growing need not only to improve one’s cybersecurity skills and knowledge, but also to find ways to optimize the learning process, for example by motivating the learners or optimising the learning facilities, material and the learners for the process. Cyber exercises ran within cyber ranges/arenas (CR) are an efficient way for the exercise participants to improve their cybersecurity skills and knowledge level. The pedagogical way of orienteering the participant to a learning situation is to have a preliminary survey, which prepares the participant for the upcoming event, adds self-reflection, and may even provide feedback and background information for the educator about the upcoming event. The objective of the survey is to improve the quality of the exercise by knowing the interest areas, preferences and other useful information about the participants that is then be used optimise the exercise accordingly.    This study analyses the structure of one preliminary survey targeted for the cyber exercise event to be held in January 2022. The questions are justified according to existing frameworks. We have collected a set of structured questions presenting different topics related to the participants’ professional background and expectations towards the exercise. In addition to the short-term goal of analysing the survey for one cyber exercise, this work benefits the long-term goal for improving the skills of cybersecurity professionals. Our further work will validate the results of our preliminary analysis and analyse its correspondence with the survey results, and the final analysis constructed after the cyber exercise.

In traditional centralized internet services, third parties authenticate the transactions of the users. An important property of decentralized blockchain networks is the unrestricted and secured access to the private keys of users, which may often be threatened for several reasons. One considerable problem in systems based on blockchain technology is when users lose access to their keys due to e.g. a broken or lost device. This paper, firstly, introduces an implementation that generates and maintains the private key in an Intel SGX enclave. The implementation allows using the private key in a process isolated from all other processes running on the same system. Secondly, the paper provides a method that enables the secure storage and recovery of a backup key to and from an external repository, using an end-to-end secure connection. One proposed application, with which this technology could be exploited, is the social wallet.