The contemporary refugee crisis, due to conflicts in various areas all over the world, has boosted the need of the governments for increased surveillance in borders, in social media as well inside the camps especially for radicalization and extremism. As a result, there is an increased need for novel surveillance related technologies that can be adapted to the new military and civilian conditions as these have been developed worldwide.

There are numerous examples of surveillance-based technologies that have penetrated various aspects of our personal life, such as smart and portable devices, which can be used by operators and decision makers either in a central location or while being on the mobile (by agents in action). While desktop based applications can monitor, process and analyze surveillance data coming from a variety of sources, mobile-based platforms can also be used. These include smart phones, smart watches and in general smart devices, able to continuously collect petabytes of data, not only by governments but also by companies with different pretext.

Another example is biometrics technologies based on face, iris, voice, fingerprints and other hard modalities, or human recognition based on the usage of marks, scars, tattoos and sketches etc. (soft biometrics), including technologies that allow successful spoofing attacks. Finally, multi-modal biometrics and biometrics based on alternative or extreme sensing technologies, e.g. long range human identification at night.

This workshop is expected to bring forward the aforementioned issues. It will aim at presenting novel research developed by experts around the world in the areas of military, civilian and cyber surveillance. The workshop will be focused in discussing the advances in surveillance technologies, such as social media, internet, and cyber space methodological approaches and applications. The latest advances in the field, including, the presentation of novel research methods that are in the service of defense organizations, focusing on usage of social networking platforms, social network analysis and cyber surveillance is also expected to be covered. Other technologies that affect the everyday life of citizens will also be covered, such as video or image analysis as well as human recognition when using portable imaging sensors. Finally, the workshop will cover another very important aspect of surveillance, namely, the ethics and privacy in social networks and how they affect citizens and governments, as they continuously evolve in the light of globalization and international terrorism.