At the recent 3 rd European Cluster for Securing Critical Infrastructure (ECSCI) workshop,
held in Bilboa, Spain, the INTACT manager, Dr. Kevin Fleming of ICP, presented an
overview of the INTACT project. Despite still being in its early days, INTACT is setting out to
make itself known throughout the wider cybersecurity and associated scientific communities
and the relevant domains, including those dealing with critical infrastructure protection and
resilience. Understanding what other projects are undertaking in terms of areas relevant to
INTACT is critical to ensuring that the project’s outputs are pertinent, as well as for making
contacts and exchanges to enhance the quality and spread of the project’s results.
The workshop
The workshop brought together representatives from over 20 ongoing projects, with invited
talks from EC officials and other experts from the critical infrastructure protection and
resilience domain. There were also roundtable and panel discussions dealing with emerging
technologies for critical infrastructure resilience, best practices and lessons learned from
recent projects, and the issue of, and need for, resilience ecosystems, including those
dealing with the stages following research in this domain.
The discussions during the workshop were as wide-ranging as the projects represented,
which included areas close to the concerns of INTACT, such as cybersecurity and
healthcare. What became truly clear during the workshop was not only the vast amount of
work going on in the critical infrastructure protection domain, but also, especially when
considering cybersecurity, the complexity of the policy landscape with recent and future
developments trying to keep up with this rapidly evolving technological area.
One frequently raised point was the problem of a lack of appropriately trained cybersecurity
professionals. This strongly shows how the INTACT Toolbox, which is also being designed
for use by non-specialists, will certainly have a place within the cybersecurity landscape.
The ECSCI Cluster
The European Cluster for Securing Critical Infrastructure is a network of over 50 EC-
supported projects (completed and ongoing) which aim to enhance the protection and
resilience of critical infrastructure around Europe from physical (natural, malicious, and
accidental), cyber, and hybrid threats and attacks to ensure the security of necessary
services for European citizens. It covers all manner of critical infrastructure, with
cybersecurity, the focus of INTACT, being a major component.
The workshop proceedings will be produced in the near future, with a contribution expected
from INTACT.
