The work started with the analysis of stakeholder requirements and the specification of reference use cases, the analysis of the pilot scenarios and the methodology for executing those pilots and the review of the regulatory and legal requirements that financial institutions are required to comply with. The initial specification of the FINSTIX Data Model allows a structured language for describing cyber and physical threat information so it can be shared, stored, and analysed in a consistent manner. The specification of the FINSEC Reference Architecture was also detailed.
The common goal was to customize the technologies from each task to work in the Financial Service context and to collaborate in order to provide a set of security services from the perspective of an integrated platform. The FINSEC Big Data Infrastructure was realized and then specifically designed to be hosted in the cloud in order to work seamlessly with the other applications of the Reference Architecture to enable the delivery of security services based on the SECaaS paradigm. Furthermore, the first integrated version of FINSEC Platform, Services and Tools, including its full set of features, its architecture and relation to the general FINSEC RA, its platform technology stack, its detailed documentation were built.
The first wave of development, deployment, test and assessment of all the project pilots has been performed, after its detailed planning. These activities also involved different stakeholders’ workshops in order to support a collaborative security assessment process.
The first version of Market Platform implementation has been developed. In order to do it, the architecture and technical specifications were defined and the initial content.
Communication and dissemination plans and strategy were defined, and FINSEC social media accounts and website created and managed. Templates and support communication material have been produced; a special attention was given to the organisation and participation of conferences and workshops, with stakeholders both from a financial and academic background, as well as to the planning and publications of academic papers. Engaging with relevant stakeholders, policy makers and standard bodies has been done, as part of standardisation and policy making activities. Templates for the business model of the FINSEC platform and exploitation fiches have been generated, while IPR agreement and second year exploitation activities have been planned. Finally, it was created a cluster of H2020 CIP project, with the definition of a liaison plan, covering technical, scientific, communication and commercial aspects.
Finally, relevant opinions for research with humans were collected, including both the opinions of the competent committees within organisations hosting pilot activities and an ethics clearance at project level from the Ethics Committee of NRS. A deliverable that contains the name, contact details and a short CV of each Data Protection Officer (DPO) of FINSEC partners involved in data collection and/or handling was produced. Finally, a deliverable with the declaration on compliance for collecting and processing personal data was produced, including statements from the designated DPO and FINSEC data protection/privacy impact assessment (DPIA). In the context of pilot activities, an information sheet was produced about the data treatment process, which was distributed among the workshops participants; moreover, a consent form on the same topic was prepared and signed by the attendees.
