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EU-HYBNET 3rd Innovation Standardisation Workshop #ISW2024

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We are pleased to announce that EU-HYBNET’s 3rd “Innovation Standardisation Workshop” will take place on 22nd October 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.

The purpose of the Innovation Standardisation Workshop is to provide hybrid threats stakeholders and EU-HYBNET consortium partners to map the current status of standardisation efforts in the field and identify needs and possibilities for the future.

The workshop will be divided into four thematic sessions, each dedicated to one of the innovative solutions developed during the past months of the project:

1. Innovation: Citizen – Responder Platform for Information Sharing in cases of Emergency and Crises (CRP)

The information-sharing environment and platform called as “Citizen – Responder Platform” (CRP) may ensure trusted information for the first and second responders’ analysis and reaction because the platform hosts a variety of tools used by citizens in crises and emergencies for live information sharing. The CRP will also be able to analyse with the support of AI that the data/information shared is not fake. The CRP also supports gaining information on false alarms, incl. adversaries’ means to provide false data and amplify the crises with the hybrid threat campaign of destabilising society and citizens’ trust in authorities. This information is beneficial for intelligence to learn about adversaries’ means, tactics & techniques used.

2. Innovation: Local Media Hybrid Threats Tracker (LMHTT)

The solution focuses specifically on assessing the potential risks of Foreign Interference and Manipulation of Information (FIMI) campaigns and media pluralism at the local and regional levels. It is a diagnostic tool for academic researchers, media literacy experts, and fact-checkers to produce reports and alert security practitioners on potential threats that need to be investigated or may be linked to other cases.

3. Innovation: Citizens Reporting Tool on Suspicious Signs (CiReTo)

Innovation focuses on how to enhance and extend the use of recording and geolocating acts of harassment and violence (or calls for violence) in physical space and acts of harassment and calls for violence online to create safer streets and online spaces. The main goal is to provide a platform for users to report incidents of harassment and violence, both on the street and online, including features for reporting incidents, capturing evidence, and alerting authorities or support networks. Additionally, the app may incorporate community-building elements to foster solidarity and support among users. It would be especially useful in crisis situations like riots, if used by large number of users.

4. Innovation: STARLIGHT and Innovation Testing Best Practices

STARLIGHT project is one of the flagship projects dedicated to delivering an easily deployable toolset to address various needs of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and other security practitioners driven by constantly changing tech-driven crimes. The project is organised so that there are co-development cycles in each group in scope (one of them is disinformation and misinformation). Co-development means that each group has potential end-users of the solutions under development. Development is done based on the end-users’ expectations. They also contribute use cases and are involved in the overall development process. Such an approach provides benefits for both developers and end-users. Developers get to understand the realistic needs of end-users during the development so they can adjust functionalities, interfaces or other aspects during the early stage. At the same time, end-users can understand the solution better and get to know how they can use it and what results they can expect. Early involvement and co-development are essential for the uptake process. This approach can also be applied in other projects or the uptake process in general.

Each session will last one hour and will include:
– A short presentation of the innovation solution by an EU-HYBNET Consortium Partner
– Two 20-minute presentations related to the topic by practioners, researchers, or industry experts
– A 15-minutes discussion

The event agenda can be found here and registration can be found here.

If you require any further information, please contact event organiser – EU-HYBNET partner – Polish Platform for Homeland Security (Malgorzata Wolbach malgorzata.wolbach@ppbw.pl)

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EU-HYBNET Final Gaps and Needs Event

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Open for EU-HYBNET Partners and Network Members!

Support us in defining pan-European practitioners’ and other relevant actors’ (industry, academia, NGOs) gaps and needs to counter hybrid threats!

We are pleased to announce that EU-HYBNET’s 4th and Final Gaps and Needs Event will take place on 12 June 2024 in Madrid, Spain. This will be an in-person event only and will be hosted by Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) at its premises in Madrid.

EU-HYBNET is continuing its third project cycle with a Gaps and Needs Event in order to discuss and define pan-European practitioners’ and other relevant actors’ (industry, academia, NGOs) gaps and needs to counter hybrid threats.

The Gaps and Needs Event is at the core of EU-HYBNET since it will determine the priority gaps and needs on which the project will focus in the forthcoming months by identifying most promising innovations to fill the gaps and needs and recommending innovations uptake and standardisation. Thanks to your contributions, the project will deliver results matching your needs! This is the final cycle that will include a Gaps & Needs Event before the project ends, so make sure not to miss it!

You can find the draft agenda for the event here.

REGISTER HERE

The forthcoming Gaps and Needs Event is organised by the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC).

For more information, please contact:

EU-HYBNET Event organiser: Maxime Lebrun maxime.lebrun@hybridcoe.fi & Hanne Dumur-Laanila hanne.dumur-laanila@hybridcoe.fi (Hybrid CoE)

EU-HYBNET Network Manager: Jari Räsänen (Laurea) jari.rasanen@laurea.fi

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EU-HYBNET 4th Annual Workshop #AW2024

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We are pleased to announce that the EU-HYBNET consortium will hold its fourth Annual Workshop, #AW, on 24 April 2024 at the Valencia Local Police Headquarters in Valencia, Spain. Please save the date in your calendars and share the event with your networks!

This workshop will present the results and findings of the EU-HYBNET project during the past year. The consortium aims to ensure vivid interaction with all hybrid threats stakeholders to assess the feasibility of the project findings and possible recommendations to innovations uptake and standardisation.

As part of the event, EU-HYBNET will also be inviting providers of innovative solutions on security-related topics to present research and/or innovations which could contribute to countering hybrid threats. Please find the call for pitches further below.

The workshop will be open to project partners, network members and external participants upon registration. Please find the event agenda here, which will be updated regularly.

Registration Closed

Call for Pitches/Innovations

As part of the 4th Annual Workshop, EU-HYBNET is inviting organizations and projects that work with security-related topics to present innovations (technological and non-technological e.g. SOPs, training) which contribute to countering hybrid threats in following areas: 

* Future trends in hybrid threats: detection of the weak signals and vulnerabilities to improve foresight capability in the areas of:

  • Political deficiency (Political volatility – structural threat / Lack of policy foresight)
  • New agit-prop (Disinformation spread through encrypted and multiple private messaging apps / Anti-system movements)
  • Substitutive reality (Conspiracy theories spread to European realities / Alternativisation of reality)

* Cyber and Future Technologies: monitor and analyse attempts to manipulate civil societies in digital environment (combat information manipulation) such as:

  • Stealing data attacking individuals (Theft of work or employee data in politically exposed institution / Doxxing civil society organization (CSO) activists / Leak of hospital patient data / Social engineering (impersonation, taming with billing systems and obligations))
  • Online manipulation attacking democracy (AI generated content – structural threat / Content moderation weaponization / Artificial amplification (CIB)
  • Attack on services (Denial-of-service/DDOS / Physical attack on infrastructures critical to population livelihood (cyber-physical))

* Resilient civilians, local level and national administration: increase trust among government and people e.g.

  • Spreading violence (Increasing tolerance for violence as a mode of political dissent– structural threat / Online political harassment and “SLAPP”)
  • Attack on social structures (Vulnerability of higher education institutions to interference / Collapse of the hospital system under massive patient afflux)
  • Undermining institutions’ internal organisation (Personnel tensions in critical areas – structural threat / Obsolete hierarchies in national security agency)

* Information and strategic communication, incl. foreign information manipulation and interference, e.g.

  • Media conundrum (Difficult sustainability of quality journalistic media)
  • Victimization narratives in the informational space (Generalization of narratives based on victimized identities)
  • Attack on information (Pressures onto independent fact checkers / Increased use of visual misinformation)

Innovations related to hybrid threats but not linked to the topics abovementioned can be submitted. For the technological solutions we encourage you to submit your application only if your solution has a TRL >7.  If you are interested in presenting your innovation in-person during the Annual Workshop, please fill out the template which you can download below. Kindly send your description of an innovation by the 29th of February 2024 to Laurea University of Applied Sciences (LAUREA), EU-HYBNET Project Manager Ms. Tiina Haapanen tiina.haapanen@laurea.fi

Download the submission form here!

Once we have received all inputs, EU-HYBNET will select 3-4 most promising innovation to be presented during the workshop on 24/4/2024 in Valencia, Spain (venue: Valencia Local Police Head Quarters). Travel cost of presenters will be covered by the project to reasonable extend.

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EU-HYBNET 3rd Annual Workshop #AW

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We are pleased to announced that the EU-HYBNET consortium will hold its third Annual Workshop, #AW, on 20 April 2023 in Bucharest, Romania.

Please save the date in your calendars and share the event with your relevant networks!

This workshop will present the results and findings of the EU-HYBNET project during the past year. The consortium aims to ensure vivid interaction with all hybrid threats stakeholders to assess the feasibility of the project findings and possible recommendations to innovations uptake and standardisation.

As part of the event, EU-HYBNET will also be inviting providers of innovative solutions on security-related topics to present research and/or innovations which could contribute to countering hybrid threats.

Please find here the full draft agenda. The workshop is open to project partners and external participants upon registration.

Registration is closed

Call for Innovations – Pitches

As part of the 3rd Annual Workshop, EU-HYBNET is inviting organizations and projects that work with security-related topics to present innovations (technological and non-technological) which contribute to countering hybrid threats in following areas: 

* Future trends in hybrid threats: detection of the weak signals and vulnerabilities to improve foresight capability in the areas of 

  • Data analytics for social network intelligence
  • Individual profiling based on algorithmic predictions enabled by AI
  • NBIC: neurological, biological, information and cognitive sciences innovations and findings

* Cyber and Future Technologies: monitor and analyse attempts to manipulate civil societies in digital environment (combat information manipulation) such as

  • Interference practices during crisis
  • Building resilience to Fake News
  • Sentiments monitoring among population
  • Collaborative resilience (cyber and information environment) 

* Resilient civilians, local level and national administration: increase trust among government and people  

  • increasing civilian engagement in crisis management
  • methods/techniques to understand impacts of protest actions and movements on national politics and geopolitics

* Information and strategic communication  

  • Education and training for building resilience to disinformation and FIMI (Foreign information manipulation and interference)
  • Enhancing fact-checking and argument checking with AI technologies online (from pre-bunking to criminalization)
  • Anticipatory, Strategic, and warning intelligence against hostile influencing in the information environment

Innovations related to hybrid threats but not linked to the topics abovementioned can be submitted. For the technological solutions we encourage you to submit your application only if your solution has a TRL >7. 

If you are interested in presenting your innovation in-person during the Annual Workshop, please fill out the template which you can download below. Kindly send your description of an innovation by 17 March 2023 to the event organizer The “Mihai Viteazul” National Intelligence Academy (MVNIA), MS Ileana Surdu ileana.surdu@animv.ro

Once we have received all inputs, EU-HYBNET will select 3-4 most promising innovation to be presented during the workshop on 20/4/2023 in Bucharest, Romania (venue: Ramada Plaza Hotel). Travel cost of presenters will be covered by the project to reasonable extend.

Download Call for Pitches Here!
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EU-HYBNET 2nd Annual Workshop #AW

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Mark your calendars, because you are cordially invited to the 2nd EU-HYBNET Annual Workshop that will be held on 06 April 2022!

The EU-HYBNET Pan European Network to Counter Hybrid Threats Annual Workshop aims at highlighting the results and findings of the EU-HYBNET project gained during the second project year.

As part of the event, EU-HYBNET is inviting organizations that work with security-related topics to present research and/or innovations which could contribute to countering hybrid threats. EU-HYBNET is interested to hearing about a wide array of issues such as:

* Technological innovations.

* Ideas in organizational change.

* Public policy measures and experiences.

* Solutions to increase security in and resilience of critical infrastructures, cyber domain, local and national government.

* Information and strategic communication systems.

REGISTRATION
EU-HYBNET 2nd Annual Workshop Booklet with AgendaDownload

Call for Innovations – Pitches

As part of the Annual Workshop, EU-HYBNET is inviting organizations and projects that work with security-related topics to present research and/or innovations which could contribute to countering hybrid threats. EU-HYBNET is interested in hearing about a wide array of issues such as technological and non-technological innovations and ideas in following areas: 

* Future trends in hybrid threats: detection of the weak signals and vulnerabilities to improve foresight capability in the areas of 

– critical infrastructures and supply chains; 

– resilience of the space domain;  

– public outreach and content accessibility 

* Cyber and Future Technologies: monitor sentiments among populations such as 

– interference practices during crisis; 

– detection of fake content online; 

– disruptive technologies 

* Resilient civilians and local admin: increase trust among government and people  

– training/education of practitioners/citizens;  

– cross-collaboration initiatives between public and private sector; 

– destabilization aspects of democratic governance 
  

* Information and strategic communication  

– communication techniques targeting specific groups;  

– methodologies for fighting against disinformation;  

– methodologies for reducing impact of disinformation 

Innovations related to hybrid threats but not linked to the topics abovementioned can also be submitted. For the technological solutions we encourage you to submit your application only if your solution has a TRL >7. 

If you are interested in presenting your solution or innovative idea during the 2nd EU-HYBNET Annual Workshop, please fill out the template which you can download here. Each presentation will last a maximum of 10 minutes. Once we have received all inputs, EU-HYBNET will select the 6 most promising innovation to be presented during the workshop. 

Kindly send your innovation by 11 March 2022 COB to the event organizers Rachele Brancaleoni and Monica Bernassola, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore: 

rachele.brancaleoni@policlinicogemelli.it and monica.bernassola@unicatt.it 

Form Call for innovationDownload

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EU-HYBNET participates in the ‘Responding to hybrid threats in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region’ Workshop

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Come and meet us at the Workshop on ‘Responding to hybrid threats in the Mediterranean and Black Sea region’ Workshop. The event takes place online from 14th until 16th of December from 13.00 to 16.00 CET.

The purpose of the workshop is to contribute to the development of resilience against hybrid threats at a regional level within the member states and among its influencers and opinion formers. Hybrid threats erode the political cohesion of the alliance and its partners and are a part of the current EU, NATO, and the partner’s security landscape.
The primary objective is to examine a synchronization toolkit on resilience mechanisms between the EU, NATO, and regional authorities and to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy process from a central level down to regional levels among the target audience and to give guidelines in how to improve the process.

What we find today is that a state can reach the parts of another state’s triangle of war fighting capability much easier. It is simplified to say that it is about the Internet, but it is also true that the Internet facilitates a host of opportunities, good and bad when it comes to communicating with a population. Meddling in internal affairs disrupt the Western narrative of globalization, rule of law, democracy, and interconnectivity. Hybrid warfare as part of a wider information operation provides a problem partly by its content; partly by its due to attribution questions and the potential for deniability by the perpetrator.
Best practices analysis will fill knowledge gaps in addressing hybrid threats. The development of a resilience toolkit applicable at a regional level will lead towards a change of attitude vis-à-vis hybrid threats and to an improved EU-NATO- regional authorities synchronized effort in countering hybrid threats.

The wokshop is co-organised by EU-HYBNET partner Universidad Rey Juan Carlos along with Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Mid Sweden University and Ciberimaginario. The first day of the event (14th of December 2021), keynote speeches will be delivered to the audience. EU-HYBNET coordinator Päivi Mattila (Laurea) will present the project’s experience in building pan-European network to counter hybrid threats.

Agenda & Registration

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EU-HYBNET “Defined Innovations to Hybrid Threats” Event #EDIHT

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Open for EU-HYBNET Partners, Network Members & Relevant EU bodies and Networks!

The “Defined Innovations to Hybrid Threats” event (#EDIHT) provides EU-HYBNET pan-European stakeholders (practitioners, industry, academia, NGOs) with an opportunity to learn about innovations (technical and social/ on-technical) that the project has identified as possible solutions to counter hybrid threats. The event will take you through the process of assessment, selection and analysis of all innovations.

The workshop will present research results from EU-HYBNET project’s work in selected target areas in which improvements and innovations for countering hybrid threats need to be taken up. The basis for research was found in earlier project activities where promising research, technologies and innovations have been identified as possible answers to pan-European practitioners and other relevant actors (industry, academia, NGOs) gaps, needs and vulnerabilities in countering hybrid threats. During the event, presentations will be given on how the assessment of the possible innovative solutions was conducted and how this leads to:

a) the formulation of target areas

b) the prioritization of innovations

c) inclusion into EU-HYBNET work dedicated to further processing of solutions for innovation uptake recommendations.

By organising the event at the start of the EU-HYBNET project’s next 2nd working cycle (October 2021 – March 2023), we hope that it might inspire you to suggest new ideas for countering hybrid threats, which we can then process from October 2021 onwards.

The workshop is open to project consortium and EU-HYBNET network members upon registration and aims at fostering information sharing on innovative solutions to counter hybrid threats.

EU-HYBNET Defined Innovations Event Booklet Download
REGISTRATION

Join the event on 4th October 2021 at 9.30-11.00 CEST!

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EU-HYBNET will take part in INCLUDING 2nd Annual Workshop on Nuclear Security in Maritime Infrastructure

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Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (EU-HYBNET Consortium) will present EU-HYBNET project during next INCLUDING Workshop on Nuclear Security in Maritime Infrastructure.

The 2nd INCLUDING Workshop is devoted to Nuclear Security issues and with a focus on maritime infrastructure. Following the two days exercise at Piraeus Port Container Terminal, the Workshop will put under the magnifying lens open issues in prevention, detection and response to Nuclear Security scenarios and primarily in designated points of entry like ports.

The Workshop scope includes:

  1. Strategic issues and the international legal framework
  2. Operational capabilities and innovation
  3. Cooperation between EU and international activities

The Workshop is upon invitation and open to practitioners, innovators, suppliers and academia with a role and interest in the subject.
Location: Joint CBRN Coy premises, Chaidari, Athens, Greece

The Workshop is organised in physical presence. Due to the particular situation with pandemic, the event will be livestreamed to interested stakeholders.
If you are interested in following the INCLUDING 2nd Annual Workshop livestream, please contact the organizers for having the access using the following LINK.

INCLUDING 2nd Workshop AgendaDownload