Nowadays, NFC technology is used in contactless payment applications by offering the NFC payment functionality in credit/debit cards, smartphones and payment terminals. Thus, an NFC payment transaction is executed in a simple and practical way. EMV is the security protocol for both contact and contactless payment systems. However, during an EMV payment transaction, this standard does not ensure two main security constraints between a customer payment device and a payment terminal:(1) mutual authentication, (2) confidentiality of sensitive banking data exchanged. These weaknesses represent a major risk in the case of NFC payment because the transaction is performed using NFC radio waves in an open environment. The risk is reduced in the case of contact payment because the transaction is executed in a closed environment by inserting the card into the terminal. In this paper, we propose a new security protocol for NFC payment transactions based on a Cloud infrastructure. We verify the correctness of this proposal using Scyther tool that provides formal proofs for security protocols.

Blockchain technology is today proposed as a new technical infrastructure for several types of IT applications. This interest is due to its unique property that allows two entities to perform transactions, in a very secure manner, without going through a TTP. However, a blockchain comes along a number of other intrinsic properties, which may not be suitable or beneficial in all the envisaged application cases. Consequently, we propose in this paper a decision tree to identify when a blockchain may be the appropriate technical infrastructure for a given IT application, and when another system (centralized or distributed peer-to-peer) is more adapted. This tree is based on a comparative study between the blockchain and classical "centralized and distributed peer-to-peer" systems.

Today, the abstention rate continues to rise, largely due to the need to travel to vote. This is why remote evoting will increase the turnout by allowing everyone to vote without the need to travel. It will also minimize the risks and obtain results in a faster way compablack to a traditional vote with paper ballots. In fact, given the high stakes of an election, a remote e-voting solution must meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and transparency to gain the trust of citizens. In literature, several remote e-voting solutions based on blockchain technology have been proposed. Indeed, the blockchain technology is proposed today as a new technical infrastructure for several types of IT applications because it allows to remove the TTP and decentralize transactions while offering a transparent and fully protected data storage. In addition, it allows to implement in its environment the smart-contracts technology which is used to automate and execute agreements between users. In this paper, we are interested in reviewing the most revealing e-voting solutions based on blockchain technology.

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