Researchers from three Portuguese institutions will ensure that Portugal is represented in the development of a cyber defense system for different military units in the European Union.
It's called Pandora (Cyber Defense Platform For Real-Time Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Information Sharing) and is a tool that seeks to help European military units detect malicious attacks in real time and contribute to the strengthening of cyber defense capabilities through the development of an open tool, available to all member countries.
The cyber threats and possible incidents in the defense capabilities of the member states of the European Union (EU) are increasingly a reality that must be prevented since a cybersecurity incident can compromise the security and integrity of countries and even lead to the loss of human lives.
“This solution uses artificial intelligence and automatic processing techniques to detect a computer attack in real-time. At the same time that it signals the attack, it seeks to learn more about its origin, to make a characterization and share it with other countries so that they can protect themselves ”, explains António Pinto, professor at the School of Technology and Management (ESTG) from the Polytechnic of Porto and researcher at the Institute of Systems and Computers Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC).
The fact that the system is open and integrated will improve the detection and reaction resources, promoting the sharing of cyber threats in the field of defense, complementing the traditional security solutions that already exist in each country. “We anticipate that this project will make a decisive contribution to the development of the EU's cyber resilience capabilities”, says António Pinto, who is part of the Portuguese team.
The PANDORA system will be tested in two different scenarios: military naval security and military sensor network security. In the first case, the tool will be installed on a warship, a target very vulnerable to cyber attacks, since it makes use of many technologies and information systems. Combat systems will be tested. In the second case, the solution will be tested on wireless communication sensors present in weapons, ammunition, vehicles, robots, among others, which communicate sensitive information about the location of military infrastructure and equipment.
The project has 15 partners, from seven countries. In Portugal, in addition to INESC TEC, the Center for Research, Development and Innovation of the Military Academy (CINAMIL) and GMVIS Skysoft participate. The consortium also includes: Space Hellas (the leader, from Greece), Infili Technologies PC (Greece), Orion Innovations PC, UBITECH - Ubiquitous Solutions (Greece), HM EI Zrt. (Hungary), Cyber Services Zrt. (Hungary), Center Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (Spain), Austrian Institute of Technology (Austria), GATE WATCHER (France), Naval Group (France) and NVISO - (Belgium). It is financed by more than seven million euros by the European Commission through EDIDP (European Industrial Development Program).
