Periodic Reporting for period 3 - cyberwatching.eu (The European watch on cybersecurity privacy)
Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2021-07-31
With a plethora of cybersecurity research and innovation actions, cyberwatching.eu supported decision makers at different levels and in different organizations make sense of the cybersecurity landscape.
We have come a long way since the cyberwatching.eu project began back in Spring 2017. With a number of sustainable assets, cyberwatching.eu officially closed at the end of July 2021. Project partners are now making sure the project leaves a lasting legacy and continue to contribute to this evolving landscape.
cyberwatching.eu has delivered an EU Project Radar which gives a clarity to a busy landscape. The radar provides an interactive “birds-eye” view of the complete collection of EU-funded projects in the cybersecurity space. Over 260 projects are organised by high-level categories, their lifecycle stage and relative market and technology maturity. Users can also zoom in on technology and vertical sectors (defined by the EC’s JRC cybersecurity taxonomy) in order to identify projects that are focusing on these areas.
With 5 iterative versions dating back to 2018, the radar provides detailed analysis of the cybersecurity priorities over time. What is really special about the radar though is its live version. Managed directly by the projects it maps, researchers and innovators working in the EC R&I space can actually update their data in real-time and at the same time actually carry out a self-assessment on their market and technology readiness levels.
Behind the radar lies detailed information managed by a community of R&I projects. Realising the importance of supporting project-to-project collaboration to address technology and sector specific challenges, cyberwatching,eu has established six sector-specific clusters (health, energy, finance, critical infrastructure, GDPR, threat intelligence) involving over 25 projects and providing key support to deliver joint recommendations and over 10 webinars with them.
The policy landscape too has evolved in this period too in many ways with the cybersecurity Act, GDPR, NIS Directive etc. cyberwatching.eu partners have contributed to continued dialogue with ECSO, ENISA and the four Competence Centre Pilot projects. From organising the first of a number of joint-public workshops to providing documentation detailing activities and respective roadmaps, we have consistently engaged and contributed to supporting their dialogue and alignment between them.
We have also captured the evolution of the regulatory landscape in a key document “Building Strong Cybersecurity in the European Union” presented by the EC’s delegation visit to the US in 2019.
In addition, Cybersecurity and Privacy policy roadmaps (2019 and 2021) have chartered a course for Europe by building on already existing roadmap efforts and modules, domains, categories, taxonomies and concepts. This is an important effort to understand the commonalities and the differences in approach not only in Europe but also beyond. New technologies such as AI, Blockchain and IOT have emerged and with them new challenges which need to be addressed. cyberwatching.eu has provided a robust package of recommendations facing both the policy makers and supervisory authorities, to address stakeholders’ needs in this area.
Cyberwatching.eu has actively supported the SME community by providing events and online resources on privacy and cybersecurity best practices. The GDPR Temperature Tool and Information Notices Tool, provide guidance to SMEs, providing an overview of their compliance posture, and recommendations on how to move forward. The Risk Management Temperature Tool provides a first understanding of the cyber risks threatening their organisation and paves the way for putting in place correct risk assessment processes.
The Cybersecurity Label, created in partnership with the global leader of Testing, Inspections and Verifications SGS, provides a resource for SMEs to take a first step towards certification. Based on existing certification schemes, this self-assessment exercise includes the security requirements that any organisation should comply with in order to demonstrate that it has securely implemented basic logical systems and measures to protect their assets against cyber-threats.
Finally, the cyberwatching.eu marketplace has been further developed and improved in order to provide ECSO with a dynamic, semantic-based platform to showcase European excellence and services. With the data of over 500 SMEs secured and integrated onto the platform, the Hub will become a unique centralised and specialised platform that will unite the descriptions of European cybersecurity products and services in only one resource. The benefit for the regional clusters is the creation of single resource able to gather and link the European SMEs. This will be a key asset for the Regions in order to be recognised and validated as a Cybersecurity districts of Europe.
cyberwatching.eu has delivered an EU Project Radar which gives a clarity to a busy landscape. The radar provides an interactive “birds-eye” view of the complete collection of EU-funded projects in the cybersecurity space. Over 260 projects are organised by high-level categories, their lifecycle stage and relative market and technology maturity. Users can also zoom in on technology and vertical sectors (defined by the EC’s JRC cybersecurity taxonomy) in order to identify projects that are focusing on these areas.
With 5 iterative versions dating back to 2018, the radar provides detailed analysis of the cybersecurity priorities over time. What is really special about the radar though is its live version. Managed directly by the projects it maps, researchers and innovators working in the EC R&I space can actually update their data in real-time and at the same time actually carry out a self-assessment on their market and technology readiness levels.
Behind the radar lies detailed information managed by a community of R&I projects. Realising the importance of supporting project-to-project collaboration to address technology and sector specific challenges, cyberwatching,eu has established six sector-specific clusters (health, energy, finance, critical infrastructure, GDPR, threat intelligence) involving over 25 projects and providing key support to deliver joint recommendations and over 10 webinars with them.
The policy landscape too has evolved in this period too in many ways with the cybersecurity Act, GDPR, NIS Directive etc. cyberwatching.eu partners have contributed to continued dialogue with ECSO, ENISA and the four Competence Centre Pilot projects. From organising the first of a number of joint-public workshops to providing documentation detailing activities and respective roadmaps, we have consistently engaged and contributed to supporting their dialogue and alignment between them.
We have also captured the evolution of the regulatory landscape in a key document “Building Strong Cybersecurity in the European Union” presented by the EC’s delegation visit to the US in 2019.
In addition, Cybersecurity and Privacy policy roadmaps (2019 and 2021) have chartered a course for Europe by building on already existing roadmap efforts and modules, domains, categories, taxonomies and concepts. This is an important effort to understand the commonalities and the differences in approach not only in Europe but also beyond. New technologies such as AI, Blockchain and IOT have emerged and with them new challenges which need to be addressed. cyberwatching.eu has provided a robust package of recommendations facing both the policy makers and supervisory authorities, to address stakeholders’ needs in this area.
Cyberwatching.eu has actively supported the SME community by providing events and online resources on privacy and cybersecurity best practices. The GDPR Temperature Tool and Information Notices Tool, provide guidance to SMEs, providing an overview of their compliance posture, and recommendations on how to move forward. The Risk Management Temperature Tool provides a first understanding of the cyber risks threatening their organisation and paves the way for putting in place correct risk assessment processes.
The Cybersecurity Label, created in partnership with the global leader of Testing, Inspections and Verifications SGS, provides a resource for SMEs to take a first step towards certification. Based on existing certification schemes, this self-assessment exercise includes the security requirements that any organisation should comply with in order to demonstrate that it has securely implemented basic logical systems and measures to protect their assets against cyber-threats.
Finally, the cyberwatching.eu marketplace has been further developed and improved in order to provide ECSO with a dynamic, semantic-based platform to showcase European excellence and services. With the data of over 500 SMEs secured and integrated onto the platform, the Hub will become a unique centralised and specialised platform that will unite the descriptions of European cybersecurity products and services in only one resource. The benefit for the regional clusters is the creation of single resource able to gather and link the European SMEs. This will be a key asset for the Regions in order to be recognised and validated as a Cybersecurity districts of Europe.
Cyberwatching.eu leaves a strong lasting legacy beyond the project lifetime that can impact positively on the cybersecurity landscape. Seven KERs have been established facing the SME community and the research community.
The KERs have been clearly highlighted on the new-look cyberwatching.eu homepage and new menu structure. A clear sustainability and exploitation plan has been put in place and is being followed. MoUs have either been proposed, drafted, or signed between partners and third parties.
EU Project Radar: We are in dialogue with the EC to understand how the radar can be fully exploited by the EC, and its entities such as the JRC and the new EU Competence Centre.
Webinar series: Support to the clusters and identification of further clusters will continue through the Trust-IT’s role in the EC’s Horizon Results Booster (HRB).
Marketplace & ECSO SME Hub: The full implementation of all ECSO SME Hub specs based on the original project marketplace represents a crucial part of ECSO’s sustainability plan for the future, and its vision of ECSO 2.0 and beyond. We are now in a final implementation phase and will support ECSO in a final testing phase and eventual launch in December 2021. Handing over the Marketplace to ECSO goes beyond the original scope of the marketplace and provides an important project asset that can not only bring added value to ECSO but also the cybersecurity landscape.
Self-assesment tools for SMEs: As part of the sustainability strategy, an agreement has been reached within the consortium to transfer the exploitation rights of the four tools developed for SMEs (GDPR temperature tool, Cyber Risk temperature tool, Information Notice tool and the Cybersecurity Label) to the AEI Ciberseguridad, with a plan for their integration as part of the services offered by the AEI within the Spanish DIH in Cybersecurity (CyberDIH).
So, although cyberwatching.eu comes to an end, we see a new beginning with partnerships formed between project partners, a legacy of lasting and sustained outputs and new challenges and horizons with the European Commission’s Horizon Europe and Digital Europe Programmes.
The KERs have been clearly highlighted on the new-look cyberwatching.eu homepage and new menu structure. A clear sustainability and exploitation plan has been put in place and is being followed. MoUs have either been proposed, drafted, or signed between partners and third parties.
EU Project Radar: We are in dialogue with the EC to understand how the radar can be fully exploited by the EC, and its entities such as the JRC and the new EU Competence Centre.
Webinar series: Support to the clusters and identification of further clusters will continue through the Trust-IT’s role in the EC’s Horizon Results Booster (HRB).
Marketplace & ECSO SME Hub: The full implementation of all ECSO SME Hub specs based on the original project marketplace represents a crucial part of ECSO’s sustainability plan for the future, and its vision of ECSO 2.0 and beyond. We are now in a final implementation phase and will support ECSO in a final testing phase and eventual launch in December 2021. Handing over the Marketplace to ECSO goes beyond the original scope of the marketplace and provides an important project asset that can not only bring added value to ECSO but also the cybersecurity landscape.
Self-assesment tools for SMEs: As part of the sustainability strategy, an agreement has been reached within the consortium to transfer the exploitation rights of the four tools developed for SMEs (GDPR temperature tool, Cyber Risk temperature tool, Information Notice tool and the Cybersecurity Label) to the AEI Ciberseguridad, with a plan for their integration as part of the services offered by the AEI within the Spanish DIH in Cybersecurity (CyberDIH).
So, although cyberwatching.eu comes to an end, we see a new beginning with partnerships formed between project partners, a legacy of lasting and sustained outputs and new challenges and horizons with the European Commission’s Horizon Europe and Digital Europe Programmes.