Manolis Sfakianakis

Manolis Sfakianakis (Μανώλης Σφακιανάκης, born 9 February 1963, Crete, Greece) is the Director of the Cyber Crime Center of the Hellenic Police.

Early life
Manolis Sfakianakis was born in Chania, Crete. He was raised in a family with very close ties to religion, as both of his parents were clerics. In 1981 he entered the faculty of Programming and Analysis of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. A year later he joined the Hellenic Police.

His training followed various seminars and post-graduate education related to cyber crime and cyber terrorism, such as credit card fraud prevention (London, U.K.) and Serious Organised Crime tackling (FBI).

Career
His career in the Hellenic Police started in 1982, when Sfakianakis entered an Officers' School. In 1995, he joined the Unit of Financial Police and Electronic Crime, and in 2011 he was placed in charge of the Police Cyber Crime Center. Under his leadership, the agency has intervened in an extremely large number of suicide attempts, saving altogether over 600 lives. His effectiveness in preventing suicide attempts, has earned him the moniker "Poirot of the cyberspace" by the Greek press.

Additionally during his tenure Cyber Crime Center, the agency created a website called Cyber-Kid, which is used exclusively to inform on and protect children from any possible cyber threats.

Sfakianakis, has published a book referring in detail on the threats that someone can run into while using the Internet, has given a large number of interviews offering advice on the safe use of the internet. Since 2011 he has been in charge of a number of conferences and seminars that the Cyber Crime Center has organized.

Awards

 * From the Hellenic Kidney Diseases Organization, for saving a child that swallowed sedative pills
 * From the F.B.I
 * From the President of Greece for his contribution in tackling cyber crime
 * From the Minister of Education for saving a student from a suicide attempt

Books

 * Addiction to the Internet and other high-risk internet behaviour, Livanis Publishing, 2012