Impact of malicious use of Open-Source Intelligence on critical infrastructure business continuity

¿De qué trata esta convocatoria?

The topic funds innovation projects that assess and counter the malicious use of open-source intelligence against critical infrastructure. It is relevant to critical infrastructure operators, authorities and security research partners.

¿Qué financia esta convocatoria?

Scope

Offenders use open-source intelligence (OSINT) to gather personal, professional and technical information about organisations and their staff, either to plan illegal actions directly or to obtain more sensitive data through social engineering. Combined and processed at scale, such information can reveal vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, such as camera and sensor locations or staff with special access rights.

What proposals should do

• Analyse the type, amount and accessibility of public information and how it can be used to plan hostile operations against critical entities.
• Examine the role of OSINT in recruiting insiders, identity theft, impersonation, disinformation and foreign information manipulation, and the implications of AI data processing.
• Cover all relevant sources, including social media, online forums, cloud resources, public records, lawfully accessible deep and dark web data, geospatial data and paper archives.
• Consider hybrid threat and lone wolf scenarios, and build on tools from other relevant projects.

Expected outcomes

• Greater awareness among operators and authorities of OSINT and its impact on their security.
• A toolbox for OSINT mapping, analysis and risk flagging.
• Improved incident response, emergency plans and business continuity models.
• Removal of potentially harmful OSINT from the public domain.
• Awareness campaigns and training curricula for staff of critical entities.

Technology readiness

Activities are expected to reach TRL 8 by the end of the project.

Further expectations

• Funded projects are expected to engage with the Europol Innovation Lab during their lifetime, including validating outcomes.

¿Cuándo termina el plazo?

4 de noviembre de 2027 (364 días)

4 November 2027 (single-stage submission).