Panama is emerging as a strategic center of the Americas for data storage and processing, this is shown by the dozen companies that have invested about 250 million dollars to open operations in the country. (more)

You've just hit a "pay wall." Panama-Guide subscribers who have logged in to their user accounts can see the full text of this article. However non-members can only see this short introduction. If you would like to subscribe, please click this link to subscribe via PayPal.

The National Authority for Government Innovation (AIG) reported on Thursday, April 2, that they will soon launch a new mobile application (APP) to support the services provided by the Center of Citizen Services (311) so that citizens can report from their mobile phones damages to infrastructure in their communities.

You've just hit a "pay wall." Panama-Guide subscribers who have logged in to their user accounts can see the full text of this article. However non-members can only see this short introduction. If you would like to subscribe, please click this link to subscribe via PayPal.

A total of 18 countries will participate in the Cybercrime Conference 2013, which is supported by the Organization of United Nations (UN).

During this conference the participants will discuss the various types of cyber crimes and ways to address them.

The conference will be held in Panama. (Telemetro)

by Michael Berkens - TobyClements.com just sent out his daily domain newsletter and topping the list today is the domain name Panama.com.

The asking price is $1,600,000.

Panama.com is obviously a great domain and one which I haven’t seen on the market before and one which Toby says has “never been available on the aftermarket and is still owned by the original registrant’.

Panama has a booming economy and is the financial center of Latin America.

Panama has a population of around 3.6 million and has a GDP of $36 Billion

As for the domain name, Panama.com it is parked but still has a Google PR of 4.

Complete.com is showing the domain getting only around 1K visitors a month.

We wish the owner the best on this domain and it will be interesting to see if anyone steps up to the plate and buys the domain.

The web page of the newspaper La Estrella was hacked on Wednesday December 12 at about 5:50 pm.

The damage, caused by a hacker, was looking to damage the systems because they introduced a code which defaced the format of the website, and the notes contained a strange text.

Because of this hundreds of visitors could not access the articles and the strange text on Twitter, because everything was changed, and the news was reissued, but wrong.

"We denounce it as a serious attack on the freedom of the press, but we were not fazed in the least," said Eduardo Quirós, president of Grupo Editorial El Siglo & La Estrella (GESE).

Just after 10:00 pm, the team from La Estrella was still working to repair the damage caused by the hacker.

Many followers of the news talked about what happened, and their comments were framed within the context of the publication of the exclusive video about the transfer of Manuel Antonio Noriega and the participation of the today Deputy Minister of Security, Manuel Moreno.

Starting on Monday, 10 December 2012, the video clip was published exclusively by La Estrella, which shows the former dictator sending greetings and smiling with his guards.

The video has been viewed 12,000 times and has caused a stir in Panama, Latin America and the United States, and CNN in Spanish and the Associated Press broadcast the footage. (Estrella)

Editor's Comment: Many had the same reaction to the video as I did - big deal. The guys at La Estrella have been milking this 20 video clip for all it's worth all week long. Now they got hacked, and they are assuming the two things are related. Maybe, maybe not.

The Two Oceans Group has partnered with Escape Artist to offer a Panama portal named Panama Escape Artist. The portal was officially launched September 5, 2012. Panama Escape Artist promises to be a website focused on tourism, travel, nightlife, restaurants, housing, economy, resorts, wildlife, agriculture, culture and the history of the Republic of Panama.

CEO Ulrich Schwark of the Two Oceans Group had a vision of a website in Panama for both Panamanians and expatriates. Escape Artist offered such an opportunity. After a few months of negotiations and behind the scenes work on the portal, the site is officially open for business.

The Two Oceans Group was founded in 2007 by business partners Peter Stehling and Ulrich Schwark. They own and operate multiple companies within Panama which add to the Panamanian economy. Those companies include a bakery, a real estate company, metal investment sales, storage facility and the premiere Kempinski hotel project. The Two Oceans Group with the help of its marketing team have decided that there was a significant gap in Panama media. Panama has such a large English speaking community that it made sense to have a site which offered in depth analysis of living in Panama.

Escape Artist, the recognized internet authority on working, living, investing and retiring overseas, had exactly what the Two Oceans Group was looking for. Escape Artist has been in the internet travel and tourism media business since the mid 90’s. The Escape Artist site receives over 1,000,000 unique visitors a month and boasts a subscriber list of over 400,000 people. This will give advertisers in Panama the opportunity to reach a very large audience.

There will be a monthly newsletter going out to over 400,000 people worldwide talking about exclusively Panama. Panama Escape Artist is offering an unparalleled opportunity for advertisers and business owners alike.

You can also follow Panama Escape Artist on Facebook where you will see daily postings of the latest articles, videos and stunning photos from around Panama. People are welcome to comment and post on the Facebook page. This will be a community for all fans to enjoy. Make sure to stop by the page and click the Like button. Also if you are on Google Plus you can follow Panama Escape Artist there also.

The Republic of Panama continues to rank as one of the top destinations in the world for people to expatriate to and retire.

Panama offers a wide range of opportunities for retirees and for investors. Panama Escape Artist is hoping to bring you all the information that you desire concerning international living. The teams of Escape Artist and the Two Oceans Group are here to help you along your journey and keep you informed of everything that is happening in this beautiful country of Panama.

The approval of Law 510 seems to be very controversial for netizens. Hundreds of Twitter users have opined against, besides the artists. And in the midst of this controversy, at 5:00 pm the group Anonymous launched a tweet reporting: "The war has begun snpcpanamaoeste.com <- SINAPROC West Panama hacked by # Anonymous #OpLey510 in marching #NOLey510." The website is not the official page of Sinaproc, but is related to this security institution in the Western part of the province of Panama. (Mi Diario)

By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - This weekend we went on a whale watching trip, and I want to share my photos and videos with the other people who were on the boat, and they want to share theirs with me. My father took a bunch of photos in New York, and he wants to send them all to me. I have documents and data spread between my office computer, my laptop, and my cell phone. What's the best way to consolidate all of these things? Dropbox.

You can get a small 2 gb space on the Internet for free, or you can upgrade to a bigger space for a monthly fee. You just toss files into your Dropbox and you can access them from anywhere there's an Internet connection. You can create shared folders, and then specify the people who can see and access the contents using their email address.

Anyway, I just started using Dropbox today, and so far I'm pretty happy with it. If you sign up for an account using the links in this article, my account will get a free space upgrade. It seems to be a pretty handy way to share photos and files between specific groups. I hope you find it to be useful. And besides, it's free...

Copyright 2012 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.

The Public Ministry's hands are tied, in combating cyber crime, because for more than eleven months Bill 377 that seeks to criminalize 21 illegal conducts on cyber crime, has been stalled in the Government Commission of the National Assembly.

This initiative introduced by Representative Abraham Martinez and enriched by the Attorney General's Office, is seeking to pursue behaviors that currently can not be sanctioned by law, and it also provides protection to information from the personal, institutional and private sector, which is violated by third parties through electronic or computer means.

The document states that any person who enters an account or violates the password without authorization of its owner, who simulates an identity, or creates a name or identity to commit crimes in different applications that exist, will have a penalty of two to four years in prison.

Furthermore, it is considered as aggravating the fact that these actions undermine the integrity of minors or people with disabilities, and applies a maximum penalty of six years in prison.

The bill would also provide for penalties of two to four years, for those who wrongly report the contents of an e-mail message, or who removes, destroys or obstructs documentation through these means, and who possesses personal recordings, among other violations of the correspondence.

These amendments to the Criminal Code arise after registering consecutive violations of email accounts and social networks of institutions and senior government officials, including the former Minister of the Presidency Jimmy Papadimitriu, the former Director of Public Registry Luis Barria, and the computers of the Security Ministry.

For the special prosecutor against cyber crime, Nayra Fernández, these changes are necessary because the criminals are three steps ahead in technological progress, and what the justice system has to do is position themselves in the lead to counter them.

She explained that the project aims to meet international requirements in combating cyber crime.

"We have to see a law that is in harmony with the realities of the Panamanian infrastructure and protecting sensitive structures and systems, institutions such as the Panama Canal, the water system and electricity, in addition to the metro."

Fernandez said in the last year there was an increase in complaints related to these crimes. During 2011 a total of 20 cases presented to the Special Prosecutor for Computer Crime, while so far in 2012 a total of 34 complaints have been presented.

Given this increase, Fernandez felt the investigative police must be provided with the technical tools required to fight these types of crimes. (Panama America)

Editor's Comment: Let's see, can we think of anyone who is currently bragging about having a computer full of stolen email? Do you think this moron understands he's literally bragging about having broken the law? When this new law is passed, that will tack on an additional two to four years in prison, on top of what he's already facing for the dozens of complaints pending against him for other, similar crimes. I wonder if every email message would be considered a new "count" or crime. That would be nice. I don't like people who steal the contents of a hard drive in order to extort money from victims. This guy is just another serial criminal, and the justice system is slowly catching up with him. Sooner or later...

The Deputy from the Nationalist Republican Liberal Movement (Molirena) Jose Alberto Rosas reported this Thursday, Sept. 6, that the wireless Internet service at the National Assembly building has been turned off. "Wireless Internet service has been suspended so the Deputies cannot report from the chamber," said Rosas through his Twitter account. (See: Definition of Irony below.) Amid the speeches being made by the Deputies, Rosas took the floor to ask why the Internet service had been suspended. He was informed they would make the relevant technical consultations, and the session continued. The action occurred when the Deputies were voting for and against the proposal to return the controversial Bill 508 on the proposed Electoral Reforms to committee. The proposal to return the Bill to committee was proposed by the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), but was rejected.

Later, Abraham Martinez, the First Vice President of the National Assembly, who at that time was the Chairman of the session, said there have been reports of technical problems with the Internet service for the past 15 days. (Prensa)

Editor's Comment: I found it more than just a little ironic that Rosas used the data connection on his cell phone to report via the Internet and his Twitter account, that supposedly the wireless Internet service had been cut off, in order to prevent the Deputies to let the public know what was going on inside of the Chamber. Dude, you just did... Oh, maybe he just wants to use the free service, and not burn up his "minutes". Obviously this is a major scandal and an attempt to keep the public in the dark. Clearly. No doubt about it. It's an evil conspiracy. Sure. And it's working. Hey, what's that knock at the door? gurf(*&urmble,.00d**goons*^%^(send9087helpo.....