The CS-AWARE NEXT project, typical of Horizon Europe research actions, aimed to deliver both tangible technological assets and intangible frameworks that will shape future cybersecurity strategies. Below we elaborate on what we see as the project's legacy and concrete action points for post-project collaboration.
Given the pre-existing collaborations amongst the consortium members, we see that there will be a fertile ground to prepare for the post-project exploitation phase.
Same as with the prior to our project CS-AWARE Innovation Action, the legacy of CS-AWARE NEXT is expected to extend far beyond its duration in terms of contributing with foundational tools and methodologies necessary for a unified, predictive European cyber defense.
The core technical legacy is the Advanced Situational Awareness (SA) Platform and the associated AI/ML Threat Prediction Models.
• Predictive Defense Capability: The platform's main legacy is shifting cybersecurity from purely reactive defense (responding to an attack) to predictive defense (anticipating an attack before it fully manifests). This capacity for next-generation threat intelligence will be the enduring feature that separates it from current, standard Security Operations Center (SOC) tools.
• The Shared Intelligence Model: The specific data models, taxonomies, and exchange formats developed to facilitate real-time sharing of threat indicators across different organizational sectors and national CSIRTs (Computer Security Incident Response Teams) will remain a valuable asset, effectively increasing the cyber resilience of its targeted users.
• Proof-of-Concept for Federating EU Cyber Defense: The project's successful demonstration in diverse pilot environments (e.g. energy, finance) serves as the primary Real-World Evidence (RWE) that a distributed, AI-driven situational awareness platform can function effectively at a cross-border, multi-sector level.
