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Volume III, Issue 2(6), 2024
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The severe impacts of the CrowdStrike outage on the world economy and national critical services, e.g., banking, healthcare, and airports, invoked the urgent need to decrease governmental dependence on foreign tech companies to store and manage national data. An effective alternative to this approach is data localisation. The latter includes the physical placement of data infrastructure within the state’s territory or imposing ultimate national control over data stored in a server located abroad, along with relevant managing software. The research points out the prominence of data localisation to protect national data, and the functionality of services depending on this data, against technical failures that cause outages. In this endeavour, the research reviews the concepts of territoriality and localisation of cyberspace, along with shedding light on the CrowdStrike outage and explaining its reasons and consequences. Then, it introduces a justification for the validity of data localisation for preventing outages' negative impacts and protecting national data.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and URL DOI.
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This paper examines the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in vocational education and training (VET) institutions, highlighting its significance in aligning education with the demands of a rapidly digitising world. The Council of the European Union recognises VET's role in equipping individuals with skills for digital and green transitions. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ICT adoption in education became imperative, accelerating the digital revolution within the sector. Albania, as an EU candidate country, has emphasised ICT in its national strategies, aligning with European frameworks to foster modernisation in VET. The research employs a quantitative methodology, utilising a questionnaire tailored to the Albanian VET context, to gather insights from public vocational schools and training centers, with a total number of n=46 institutions participating in the research. Findings reveal that VET institutions recognise ICT-supported modernisation as vital for improving teaching quality, management, communication, and students' transition to the labour market. Despite this, challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, outdated devices, and limited digital skills among teaching staff impede the full realisation of ICT's potential. To address these barriers, the study recommends targeted interventions, including teacher training and infrastructure development. This research contributes to the discourse on digital transformation in VET, underscoring the importance of strategic investments in ICT for enhancing vocational education's quality and relevance in Albania's evolving educational landscape.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and URL DOI.
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The rise of the gig economy and the increasing demand for flexible, remote work have transformed the freelancing landscape. This paper presents the development of a mobile application designed to streamline the process of project bidding, user management, and service matching for freelancers. Built using Java and Android Studio, the application employs Agile development methodologies to ensure robust performance and a seamless user experience. Key features include user registration and verification, a secure project-bidding platform, and efficient database management with SQLite. The app also utilises the Glide library for optimised image handling, ensuring smooth interaction for freelancers and clients alike. Initial results indicate that the platform effectively connects clients with freelancers by providing an intuitive, reliable, and secure service-matching environment. This paper explores the technical design, challenges, and future directions of the application, emphasising its potential to improve freelancing workflows and address key issues such as decision fatigue and trust in digital platforms.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and URL DOI.
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This study aims to advance the detection of production defects at three levels - part, material, and machine - through the application of a few quality tools with a view to proposing solutions. The research focuses on identifying and addressing the most prevalent and critical anomalies observed in the workshop. Despite existing quality control measures, production often falls short of meeting customer specifications due to machine malfunctions, inadequate operator vigilance, and inefficiencies in the maintenance processes. These challenges underscore the need for a systematic approach to visualise and address production system issues. By applying targeted quality tools, this paper seeks to optimize maintenance strategies and improve overall production performance, contributing to enhanced operational efficiency and product quality.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and URL DOI.
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What if the main data protection vulnerability is risk management? Data Protection merges three disciplines: data protection law, information security, and risk management. Nonetheless, very little research has been made in the field of data protection risk management, where subjectivity and superficiality are the dominant state of the art. Since the GDPR tells you what to do, but not how to do it, the solution for approaching GDPR compliance is still a grey zone, where the trend is using the rule of thumb. Considering that the most important goal of risk management is to reduce uncertainty in order to take informed decisions, risk management for the protection of the rights and freedoms of the data subjects cannot be disconnected from the impact materialisation that data controllers and processors need to assess. This paper proposes a quantitative approach to data protection risk-based compliance from a data controller’s and processor’s perspective, with the aim of proposing a mindset change, where data protection impact assessments can be improved by using data protection analytics, quantitative risk analysis, and calibrating experts’ opinions.
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by RITHA Publishing. This article is distributed under the terms of the license CC-BY 4.0., which permits any further distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited maintaining attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and URL DOI.
