The 2nd Annual General Assembly of the partners of the European project “ACTING” (Advanced European platform and network of Cybersecurity training and exercises centers), which took place from 8-10 October 2024, at the University of Cyprus, was successfully completed. The ACTING project, with a duration of 4 years (2022-2026), is funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF) of the European Commission and the Ministry of Defence of Cyprus and aims to develop a European platform for cybersecurity training and exercises.
The Assembly was organised by the Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence “KIOS” of the University of Cyprus and the companies 8BELLS and SIDROCO and was attended by over 55 experts from 13 European countries.
The long-term objective of the ACTING project is to enhance the training and exercises of European Union cyber defence operators through the development of a network of advanced and federated training and exercises in different interacting domains (e.g. military, naval and critical national infrastructure). The project aims to integrate sophisticated methods and techniques for user simulation, develop a description language to create integrated and large-scale training scenarios, analyse the performance of cyber operators and score cyber security situational awareness.
During the three-day workshop, the project partners presented and discussed in detail the results of the initial phase of the project so far, as well as the progress of the work packages. The initial phase of the project included analysing user needs, conducting research in the field of cybersecurity education and defining detailed technical specifications for the development of the platform. The project is now moving into phase 2 which includes the development of the training platform and user simulation techniques in the field of cyber security. The Assembly concluded by defining the next steps to be taken by the project partners.
The platform developed through the ACTING project will be tested and evaluated in three use cases covering different cyber attack scenarios in different sectors. The first case concerns the simulation of combined cyber-attacks on joint headquarters and network systems of land and naval forces. The second case will focus on the space and maritime domain, with a focus on transport and military applications. Finally, the third case will examine the cascading effects that a cyber attack on critical infrastructure can have, thus highlighting the potential impact of such attacks on military camps and infrastructure.
The KIOS Centre of Excellence of the University of Cyprus, using its expertise in monitoring, control, management and security of critical infrastructure, is actively participating in the 3rd use case, which will include a simulation of cyber-attacks on the power grid with potential impact on camps and military infrastructure. In addition, the Centre is a major contributor to the development of the interconnected platform that will support the trainings.
The research team from the Coos Centre of Excellence participating in the ACTING project consists of Associate Professor Maria K. Michael, Research Lecturer Dr. Christos Laoudias, Assistant Professor Angelos Marneridis and Postdoctoral Researcher Dr. Maria Michalopoulou.
More information about the project can be found at: https://acting-project.eu/
Source: University of Cyprus | Latest news (https://shorturl.at/wlPjH)