Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CHESS (Cyber-security Excellence Hub in Estonia and South Moravia)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-03-31
Estonia and South Moravia are teaming up to support the EU's safe transition to a digital society.
The Cyber-security Excellence Hub in Estonia and South Moravia (CHESS) integrates leading cybersecurity institutions and aims to capitalize on the strengths of both regions to address important Europe-wide challenges. South Moravia is a major ICT industry & education powerhouse of the Czech Republic, with a focused and coherent smart specialization strategy targeting cybersecurity. Estonia is among the most advanced digital societies globally, with exceptional e-government infrastructure.
CHESS aims to bridge the research-innovation gaps by connecting fundamental researchers with economic and societal exploitation. The project will develop a joint cross-border cybersecurity research and innovation strategy focusing on six challenge areas: Internet of Secure Things, Security certification, Verification of trustworthy software, Security preservation in blockchain, Post-quantum cryptography, and Human-centric aspects of cyber-security. The strategy development is aided by the implementation of pilot R&I projects that reinforce cross-regional collaboration, engage regional innovation ecosystems and build evidence for future projects. On top of that, CHESS will create a unique network of interactions beyond its consortium, connecting the strengths of South Moravia (certification, human-centric research) and Estonia (blockchain, post-quantum cryptography, e-government) to facilitate a secure transition to full-scale digital societies.
The overall objectives of the CHESS projects are:
1. A cross-border joint Cybersecurity R&I strategy aligned with Czech and Estonian smart specialisation strategies in ICT.
2. Action and investment plans for implementation of the strategy in each of its six focus areas of cybersecurity.
3. Initiation of at least 12 small-scale R&I projects consolidating academia business linkages to demonstrate validity of ideas and provide evidence to obtain additional investments.
4. A training strategy for both regions to increase cross-border and sectoral cooperation and increase needed skills around the six priority areas.
5. Raising citizen engagement, technology transfer, staff exchange and mutual learning.
The Cyber-security Excellence Hub in Estonia and South Moravia (CHESS) integrates leading cybersecurity institutions and aims to capitalize on the strengths of both regions to address important Europe-wide challenges. South Moravia is a major ICT industry & education powerhouse of the Czech Republic, with a focused and coherent smart specialization strategy targeting cybersecurity. Estonia is among the most advanced digital societies globally, with exceptional e-government infrastructure.
CHESS aims to bridge the research-innovation gaps by connecting fundamental researchers with economic and societal exploitation. The project will develop a joint cross-border cybersecurity research and innovation strategy focusing on six challenge areas: Internet of Secure Things, Security certification, Verification of trustworthy software, Security preservation in blockchain, Post-quantum cryptography, and Human-centric aspects of cyber-security. The strategy development is aided by the implementation of pilot R&I projects that reinforce cross-regional collaboration, engage regional innovation ecosystems and build evidence for future projects. On top of that, CHESS will create a unique network of interactions beyond its consortium, connecting the strengths of South Moravia (certification, human-centric research) and Estonia (blockchain, post-quantum cryptography, e-government) to facilitate a secure transition to full-scale digital societies.
The overall objectives of the CHESS projects are:
1. A cross-border joint Cybersecurity R&I strategy aligned with Czech and Estonian smart specialisation strategies in ICT.
2. Action and investment plans for implementation of the strategy in each of its six focus areas of cybersecurity.
3. Initiation of at least 12 small-scale R&I projects consolidating academia business linkages to demonstrate validity of ideas and provide evidence to obtain additional investments.
4. A training strategy for both regions to increase cross-border and sectoral cooperation and increase needed skills around the six priority areas.
5. Raising citizen engagement, technology transfer, staff exchange and mutual learning.
We started implementing pilot R&I projects in six Challenge Areas: Internet of Secure Things; Security Certification; Verification of Trustworthy Software; Security Preservation in Blockchain; Post-Quantum Cryptography; and Human-centric Aspects of Cybersecurity. In each Challenge Area (CA), institutions from both regions and multiple sectors are involved, which helps deepen the existing collaboration between academia and industry and create new links between institutions and between regions. The CAs are defined in a way that (i) a particular strength of one region either allows knowledge transfer that will significantly improve the quality of R&I partner region or where (ii) both regions deliver excellent R&I, which justifies the assumption that their connection may result in synergies for developing the cybersecurity strategy.
In the first fifteen months of the project, the partners focused on kickstarting their research activities. The consortium initiated 16 small-scale R&I projects focused on researching and developing formal methods for system verification, post-quantum cryptography, security information systems and their certification or human aspects of cybersecurity.
The consortium conducted a thorough analysis of the current state of the existing cybersecurity ecosystem in South Moravia and Estonia. The partners working in six CHESS Challenge Areas mapped the capacities, expertise, common interests and needs for each research area in both regions. The next step is to develop a strategy to promote the excellence and impact of cybersecurity R&I in both regions.
In the first fifteen months of the project, the partners focused on kickstarting their research activities. The consortium initiated 16 small-scale R&I projects focused on researching and developing formal methods for system verification, post-quantum cryptography, security information systems and their certification or human aspects of cybersecurity.
The consortium conducted a thorough analysis of the current state of the existing cybersecurity ecosystem in South Moravia and Estonia. The partners working in six CHESS Challenge Areas mapped the capacities, expertise, common interests and needs for each research area in both regions. The next step is to develop a strategy to promote the excellence and impact of cybersecurity R&I in both regions.
The consortium has been working on several cybersecurity solutions improvements, such as migrating the e-voting system to post-quantum cryptography or PQC in Virtual Private Networks (VPN). The toolset for analyses of product security certification documents sec-certs has been tested by several commercial partners and was presented to public authorities and policymakers in the Czech Republic, Estonia and internationally. Our teams have been working on novel methods for improving trust in software that can have important economic benefits by enabling companies to avoid software malfunctions. We also have a small-scale project focused on improving the usability of cybersecurity solutions for ICT professionals. Making security products and processes usable to those who need them can be an important catalyst for more efficient adoption of security and privacy technologies. An essential aspect of the CHESS project is deploying technologies between sectors and regions. This includes systems and methodology for cybersecurity training or deployment of program analysis to practical software.