Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ATLANTIS (Improved resilience of Critical Infratsructures AgainsT LArge scale transNational and sysTemic rISks)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-10-01 do 2024-03-31
Reliable operation of Critical Infrastructures (CIs) is a pre-requisite for the integrity and resilience of vital elements in our society that help to ensure the security, well-being, and economic prosperity of Europe, its citizens, and businesses. Nowadays, CIs have become very complex, operating in a rapidly evolving societal, technological, and business environment. Moreover, since CIs are becoming more interconnected and reliant upon one another, disruptions in one CI can have severe and long-lasting cascading effects in other CIs that are essential for the continuity of societal and economic activities, even in multiple sectors and countries. Growing digitalisation and interconnectedness of CIs, based on novel technologies and technologically complicated applications, may result in the emergence of new systemic risks, generating new vulnerabilities, including those on large scale, transnational, and cross-domain coordinated attacks, carried through people and employees, either intentionally through insider threats or through human errors.
The ATLANTIS project evaluates and addresses systemic risks against major natural hazards and complex attacks that could potentially disrupt vital functions of the European society. The mission of ATLANTIS is to improve the resilience of the interconnected CIs in Europe exposed to ever evolving, existing and emerging, large-scale, combined, Cyber-Physical-Human (CPH) threats and hazards. By providing future-proof, sustainable security solutions, ATLANTIS supports public and private actors in guaranteeing continuity of vital operations while minimizing cascading effects in the infrastructure itself, the environment, other CIs, and the involved population.
The ATLANTIS project evaluates and addresses systemic risks against major natural hazards and complex attacks that could potentially disrupt vital functions of the European society. The mission of ATLANTIS is to improve the resilience of the interconnected CIs in Europe exposed to ever evolving, existing and emerging, large-scale, combined, Cyber-Physical-Human (CPH) threats and hazards. By providing future-proof, sustainable security solutions, ATLANTIS supports public and private actors in guaranteeing continuity of vital operations while minimizing cascading effects in the infrastructure itself, the environment, other CIs, and the involved population.
Significant progress was made in developing methodologies to assess and mitigate systemic risks and CPH threats to be translated into detailed scenarios for piloting activities.
Moreover, the definition of the ATLANTIS platform architectural specification began with a thorough analysis of its CI components, emphasizing security requirements. Leveraging expertise and insights from similar projects, common architectural patterns were identified to meet these requirements. These patterns were then broken down into distinct architectural elements, with detailed interactions specified to facilitate the creation of data and control flow diagrams.
Significant strides in developing an earth observation-based technological solution within the ATLANTIS framework were made. The focus was on enhancing risk assessment and damage monitoring capabilities for various hazards such as floods, landslides, wildfires, and earthquakes. A thorough review of available technologies for creating a resilient IT architecture was conducted. We compared equivalent technologies to determine their suitability, considering partner expertise.
A laboratory testbed capable of handling GNSS interference signals was setup. This involved setting up equipment to inject jamming signals into live GNSS feeds and recording the resulting data.
Another important objective was to establish a secure communication layer ensuring traceability of information and metadata, alongside enabling zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) techniques. IFollowing this, various distributed ledger technologies (DLT) were assessed to determine the most suitable option for effective inter-DLT communications. Moreover, a dedicated work on integrating security systems across critical infrastructure, with a layered approach including Detection, Adaptation, and Data Analytics was carried out. This involved standardizing alerts into the Universal Alert Format and analysing them for threat categorization to assist in risk assessment.
In addition, a set of already developed components were integrated, establishing communication flow between RRIM and SAFER, and incorporating the Knowledge Graph into the Systemic Risks Foresight and Incidents Detection DSS. TrulyMedia platform for network analysis and sentiment analysis along with HiViC platform for human engagement in CI protection was developed.
The Threat Intelligence Tool, a crucial component aimed at detecting web-based threats, was developed. Additionally, the Entropy Based Risk Assessment tool was developed to generate entropy levels for network nodes based on topology and analysed network traffic data. Then, the work was concentrated on developing an Explainable AI toolset tailored to address stakeholders’ needs with the aim to provide easily interpretable explanations, enabling anticipation of risks and summarization of incidents, thus facilitating CPH protection.
Another objective we worked on is the design of the CCI-SAAM platform, facilitating cross-domain, cross-CI, and cross-border knowledge sharing, risk assessment, threat analysis, and countermeasure mitigation.
Finally, the setup of integration tools and environments for ATLANTIS components undertook. CI/CD pipelines were configured following the DevSecOps approach, and the ATLANTIS Integrated Framework was scripted for on-premise deployment.
Moreover, the definition of the ATLANTIS platform architectural specification began with a thorough analysis of its CI components, emphasizing security requirements. Leveraging expertise and insights from similar projects, common architectural patterns were identified to meet these requirements. These patterns were then broken down into distinct architectural elements, with detailed interactions specified to facilitate the creation of data and control flow diagrams.
Significant strides in developing an earth observation-based technological solution within the ATLANTIS framework were made. The focus was on enhancing risk assessment and damage monitoring capabilities for various hazards such as floods, landslides, wildfires, and earthquakes. A thorough review of available technologies for creating a resilient IT architecture was conducted. We compared equivalent technologies to determine their suitability, considering partner expertise.
A laboratory testbed capable of handling GNSS interference signals was setup. This involved setting up equipment to inject jamming signals into live GNSS feeds and recording the resulting data.
Another important objective was to establish a secure communication layer ensuring traceability of information and metadata, alongside enabling zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) techniques. IFollowing this, various distributed ledger technologies (DLT) were assessed to determine the most suitable option for effective inter-DLT communications. Moreover, a dedicated work on integrating security systems across critical infrastructure, with a layered approach including Detection, Adaptation, and Data Analytics was carried out. This involved standardizing alerts into the Universal Alert Format and analysing them for threat categorization to assist in risk assessment.
In addition, a set of already developed components were integrated, establishing communication flow between RRIM and SAFER, and incorporating the Knowledge Graph into the Systemic Risks Foresight and Incidents Detection DSS. TrulyMedia platform for network analysis and sentiment analysis along with HiViC platform for human engagement in CI protection was developed.
The Threat Intelligence Tool, a crucial component aimed at detecting web-based threats, was developed. Additionally, the Entropy Based Risk Assessment tool was developed to generate entropy levels for network nodes based on topology and analysed network traffic data. Then, the work was concentrated on developing an Explainable AI toolset tailored to address stakeholders’ needs with the aim to provide easily interpretable explanations, enabling anticipation of risks and summarization of incidents, thus facilitating CPH protection.
Another objective we worked on is the design of the CCI-SAAM platform, facilitating cross-domain, cross-CI, and cross-border knowledge sharing, risk assessment, threat analysis, and countermeasure mitigation.
Finally, the setup of integration tools and environments for ATLANTIS components undertook. CI/CD pipelines were configured following the DevSecOps approach, and the ATLANTIS Integrated Framework was scripted for on-premise deployment.
The importance of CIs’ resilience against large-scale transnational and systemic risks cannot be overstated. By investing in resilient CIs, countries can safeguard their national security, protect their economies, ensure well-being for their society, and address environmental challenges.
- Our collaborative, cross-organizational/-sectorial/-border approach to vulnerability assessment and anticipation of systemic risks to the CIs in Europe allows for a comprehensive long-term risk assessment concerning various challenges. By jointly and holistically identifying and understanding these complex and interrelated issues, we can (i) better equip the CI operators, technology developers, and researchers working in this field to adequately protect and safeguard our vital infrastructure from evolving threats, and (ii) support governments and policy makers to make informed decisions when developing new regulatory mechanisms.
- By having a unified understanding of (i) interdependencies, (ii) pertaining systemic risks, hybrid threats, and natural hazards, and (iii) the possible large-scale, pan-European cascading effects of local disruptions, organisations across Europe representing different sectors can cooperate in countering these threats more efficiently and effectively.
- In its innovation, ATLANTIS is taking a user-driven approach to encapsulate the needs and the expectations of society, business owners, regulators, and policy makers, as well as the skills of the CI employees. With this, ATLANTIS is ensuring that the delivered solutions will be easily used by the CI operators and offers wider benefits to the entire society in terms of safety, security, wellbeing, and quality of life. Moreover, with cutting edge technologies, ATLANTIS is also creating new fields of investment and generating new employment opportunities.
- Our collaborative, cross-organizational/-sectorial/-border approach to vulnerability assessment and anticipation of systemic risks to the CIs in Europe allows for a comprehensive long-term risk assessment concerning various challenges. By jointly and holistically identifying and understanding these complex and interrelated issues, we can (i) better equip the CI operators, technology developers, and researchers working in this field to adequately protect and safeguard our vital infrastructure from evolving threats, and (ii) support governments and policy makers to make informed decisions when developing new regulatory mechanisms.
- By having a unified understanding of (i) interdependencies, (ii) pertaining systemic risks, hybrid threats, and natural hazards, and (iii) the possible large-scale, pan-European cascading effects of local disruptions, organisations across Europe representing different sectors can cooperate in countering these threats more efficiently and effectively.
- In its innovation, ATLANTIS is taking a user-driven approach to encapsulate the needs and the expectations of society, business owners, regulators, and policy makers, as well as the skills of the CI employees. With this, ATLANTIS is ensuring that the delivered solutions will be easily used by the CI operators and offers wider benefits to the entire society in terms of safety, security, wellbeing, and quality of life. Moreover, with cutting edge technologies, ATLANTIS is also creating new fields of investment and generating new employment opportunities.