Category: Security

Resilient Trust

Resilient Trust- Trusted SMEs for Sustainable Growth of Europeans
Economical Backbone to Strengthen the Digital Sovereignty

  • Duration: 10/2023 – 09/2026
  • Funding: Horizon Europe

Partners: Universite Gustave Eiffel, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung Ev, Imst Gmbh, Dgs Spa, Akkodis Italy , Centro Nautico Permare, Ro Technology , Rulex Innovation Labs , Universita Degli Studi Di Genova, Link Campus University, Universita Degli Studi Dell’aquila, Almende, Intrinsic ID, Technische Universiteit Delft, Beammwave Ab, Lunds Universitet, Arteris Ip, Commissariat A L Energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives, Institut Polytechnique De Grenoble, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique Cnrs, Microwave Characterization Center, Seamless Waves, Sorbonne Universite, Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique Cnrs, Stmicroelectronics Rousset Sas, Globalfoundries Dresden Module One Llc & Co. KG, Csem Centre Suisse D’electronique Et De Microtechnique Sa – Recherche Et Developpement, Securosys SA, 3db Access AG, Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Politechnika Gdanska

Resilient Trust

The RESILIENT TRUST initiative seeks to advance the IoT5.0 paradigm—an AI-enhanced Internet of Things ecosystem—by addressing its inherent security vulnerabilities, particularly those that disproportionately affect SMEs.

As IoT technologies proliferate, offering unprecedented automation and solutions for demographic shifts, labor shortages, and production inefficiencies, they also elevate the risk landscape.

The project underscores the necessity for scalable security frameworks capable of countering sophisticated threats, including post-quantum and AI-driven attacks.

Focusing on the development of specialized hardware and a meticulously designed secure processing chain architecture, RESILIENT TRUST aims to fortify end-to-end security across IoT networks.

By conducting comprehensive threat modeling, asset identification, risk analysis, and defining security objectives and requirements, the project endeavors to build a resilient and trustworthy IoT ecosystem.

The main goal of the RESILIENT TRUST project is to ensure end-to-end security in the AI-driven Internet of Things (IoT5.0), specifically focusing on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate safely and effectively.

Contribution

Almende will coordinate the task and will help in defining the “Ambient Intelligence in Office Spaces” use case, focusing on secure HW and SW improvements for its Crownstone technology aimed at large-scale trustworthy applications in office spaces.

Results

The main goal of the RESILIENT TRUST project is to ensure end-to-end security in the AI-driven Internet of Things (IoT5.0), specifically focusing on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate safely and effectively.

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Need specific information regarding our projects? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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PROHEAL

Automated Self-Protection and Self-Healing Software Solutions

Duration: 01/2014 – 07/2016 Funding: ITEA2, Information Technology for European Advancement

PROHEAL

The aim of the ProHeal project is to demonstrate the usage of self-managing properties inside software systems for elderly care on top of the Internet of Things networks. The consortium studied self-managing properties, principles, algorithms, and performance metrics and applied a subset of them to existing technologies for elderly care. 

The consortium validated the results in the pilot ‘Health care for elderly people including support for daily life and e-learning’. The pilot is developed in the participating countries (the Netherlands, Romania and South Korea). An integrated setup of the validation is realized in Romania in a smart environment with secure data storage and processing facilities, integrating the IoT devices and services into a self-managing system. 

Contribution

Almende has taken part in the projects as a member of the Dutch DevLab, in which 12 technological Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) are united. DevLab implemented innovative self-managing mechanisms inside the MyriaNed wireless sensor networks and various other devices, as well as inside some prototypical implementation of elderly care applications. 

Results

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Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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CIM

Cybernetic Incident Management

Duration: 01/2003 – 12/2007  Funding: TSIT program of Senter Novum

CIM

Human interaction plays a key role in calamity suppression and can be seen as a dynamic system. Humans can experience some events during a real life disaster as completely unexpected. The current problem of an emergency plan is the fact that it has never been tested.

The main goal of the CIM project is to shape the plan on paper into an active structure. The specific challenges are that a calamity might take place but nobody knows when and how. Furthermore, no scenario can completely cover what happens during a calamity. Lastly, it is very  expensive and complex to invest in all operating municipal care services, thus help has to be provided from national care services, which brings extra logistics and coordinating problems. 

The CIM project aimed at generating sufficient knowledge to allow the industrial partners of the project to build the first generation of an intelligent and adaptive agent-based ICT-infrastructure for incident management within 5 years from the start of the project. The used agent technology should allow simulation of the dynamic and often non-hierarchical nature of emergency management by the various involved organizations. 

Contribution

Almende introduced the use of software agents to support people in responding quickly and in establishing communication. The interaction between people and software agents is also used for training (real-life or simulated), which resulted in an increased effectiveness of protocols and efficiency of communication in case of a real incident.

The system contains knowledge in the communication structures. The supporting software are distributed agents that are able to obtain and weigh information dynamically. The maintenance and evolution of the system is achieved by performing simulations and training sessions, both virtually as well as real-life. Measuring the effectiveness of a response and using this as feedback can improve the quality of the protocols and the system itself. 

Results

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Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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BRIDGE

Bridging resources and agencies in large-scale emergency management

Duration: 4/2011 – 4/2015  Funding: FP7

BRIDGE

Natural disasters and accidents do not take into account municipal or national borders. In fact, in case of a large-scale incident, such as a terrorist attack or a major fire, different agencies from different regions or even countries have to work together. This is often very difficult, because of incompatible systems, organizational structures and protocols.

The BRIDGE project’s goal was to improve interoperability between different emergency response agencies and other relevant parties; between their (IT) systems, people and protocols.

First, the project partners researched the possibility of establishing resilient, ad-hoc communication networks which are able to collect all relevant information and disseminate it to all necessary parties. The resulting system improved context awareness by collecting information from sensors, surveillance cameras, communications by first responders, and bystanders

Second, middleware services allowed for interaction between all the aforementioned parties. A user interface was created that aggregates information from many different sources, to be used by people with different cultural and professional backgrounds and interests, resulting in a common operational picture (COP).

Finally, 3D models and scenarios of incidents were developed. These were tested as a training tool, and for incident management during a calamity.

Contribution

Almende used the expertise in emergency management it gained from previous projects such as ICIS and CIM. Primarily, Almende's role was using agent-based technology to solve communication and collaboration problems. A multi-agent system was developed to make sure that the right information is passed to the right agencies and that the relevant experts are involved. This way, a passive communication infrastructure is transformed into an active system that can initiate connections.

If, for instance, a ship would ram the docks of the Rotterdam harbor, a multi-agent system could immediately connect fire fighters to the harbor officials, so they could exchange relevant information. Also, the system could inform the fire fighters if the ship carried chemicals. If the cargo is unknown, it could establish contact between the fire fighters and the owner of the ship.

Software agents are thus mainly meant to perform rapid, repetitive tasks, such as quick communication or aggregation of data. Also, agents can represent interests of different parties, and thus quickly negotiate and collaborate. People are involved when difficult tasks must be executed or decisions made.

Results

The project presented another real-world example where multi-agent systems could be used to rapidly react to far-reaching events, connecting relevant actors and stakeholders automatically in a self-organizing fashion. The use of self-organization in such situations is natural, as it is usually impossible to plan exactly how events will unfold, making it better to react to new information quickly and decisively.

More info?

Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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Fireswarm

FireSwarm

Duration: 11/2011 – 3/2013  Funding: Agentschap NL

Fireswarm

In the spring of 2011, several fires scourged the dune area in the province Noord-Holland. Such large fires in natural reserves are difficult to locate and monitor. Even when witnesses report smoke, the fire department has a difficult time accessing the area and finding the actual site. Personnel has to move into the area, which can be dangerous because of toxic smoke and fast-moving fire.

FireSwarm proposed to use robots to take over the dangerous task of detecting and monitoring large fires. FireSwarm developed and tested swarms of small, autonomous flying robots: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAV’s. UAV’s are already being used in several comparable application areas, but these projects use large, expensive drones. FireSwarm used smaller, cheaper drones, which has several advantages.

A large swarm of small drones can cover much more ground than a single UAV, and individual drones are expendable, both technically and financially. A swarm is also highly scalable: if the area to be covered is bigger, you can simply launch more drones. Finally, small drones are safer; they cause less harm if they crash.

Contribution

Almende was involved in the development of the control software which enabled the UAVs to function as a swarm, respond to each other's measurements and coordinate their actions to maximize effectiveness. Furthermore, Almende offered technical support during the test flights performed in the field as part of the demonstration activities done in the project.

Results

The project contributed to our knowledge of swarm behaviour and swarm mechanics when applied to the concrete use case of UAVs, which presented a number of interesting challenges. Since individual UAVs are considered expendable due to the potentially hazardous environmental conditions, the swarm as a whole must be robust and distribute responsibilities among all actors, so there is no single-point-of-failure. This enabled us to develop robust communication and control algorithms.

More info?

Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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DEFRAUDify

Detect Fraudulent Activities in dark web and clear web to protect your business

Duration: 3/2020 – 3/2023  Funding: ITEA3

DEFRAUDify

DEFRAUDify is an ITEA3-5 project with consortia in the Netherlands, Turkey, and Spain. DEFRAUDify aims to develop tools that help private businesses to detect fraudulent behaviour on the internet. These tools are partly based on existing tools that have been developed for Law Enforcement. They will be adapted to become relevant for private businesses as well. DEFRAUDify aims at businesses that encounter negative impacts of internet organised fraudulent behaviour. The tools will consist of a set of interoperable tools that jointly analyse suspicious behaviour and provide situational awareness.

The Dutch use cases are provided by Bunq and Hoffmann and have to do with monitoring and detecting unusual financial transactions, and performing a strategic risk assessment for companies. To this end, a toolset of different modules will be developed and tested in the provided test environments. The modules will focus on crawling, semantics, and contextualization technology, or a combination of these fields. The combination of these modules allows end-users to take a systematic approach to security and fraud prevention, leading to more efficient use of time and better interoperability of different methods.

Contribution

Almende will actively develop a crawling module using agent-based technology; this module can be used to actively probe potentially fraudulent or malicious users on the dark web or clear web, with the goal of improving the rate of detection. Such activities are currently performed in an ad-hoc fashion and require the time of specialized people trained for such a task.

Results

The project presents a novel application area for agent-based technologies and is interesting because it involves direct interaction with human actors, whereas in other projects such interaction was mainly facilitated through other software agents. By understanding and emulating human behaviour, we foresee a number of other applications in the fields of decision support and human-machine interaction.

More info?

Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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PRO-HEAL

Automated self-Protection and self-Healing software solutions

Duration: 1/2014 – 6/2016  Funding: ITEA2                                   

PRO-HEAL

In 2001, IBM suggested the concept of Autonomic Computing that envisioned systems with the capability to perform changes autonomously, without or with minimal human intervention, during its execution. The main properties of autonomic systems, also called self-management systems, are: self-configuration, selfhealing, self-protection and self-optimisation. There is an increasing demand for these properties among many software systems deployed in dynamically changing environments, such as smart buildings, healthcare systems, disaster management, etc.

Such systems must be able to easily adapt at runtime in response to changes in their user preferences, requirements, computing infrastructure and surrounding physical environment. For this reason, these systems must be flexible, fault-tolerant, configurable and secure. Current software solutions are not adequate for developing self-management systems. Therefore, the aim of the PRO-HEAL project was to create and demonstrate methods and tools for producing / assessing self-managing systems on top of Internet of Things (IoT) networks.

Contribution

Almende took part in the project as a member of the Dutch DevLab, in which 12 technological Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) were united. DevLab implemented innovative self-managing mechanisms inside the MyriaNed wireless sensor network in combination with the Crownstone mesh to develop a prototypical implementation of an elderly care application.

Results

The principle of software which can autonomously optimize itself to changes in its operating parameters or external factors is an interesting concept which has led to insights for our future software and algorithm development. Furthermore, the application areas of the project, specifically for elderly care, have inspired new projects in this area.

More info?

Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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SCRATCh

SeCuRe and Agile Connected Things

Duration: 9/2018 – 8/2021  Funding: ITEA3 

SCRATCh

The main problem addressed in SCRATCh is how to balance the tension between security and agility of large-scale IoT systems. On the one hand, the hardware, firmware and software of Internet of Things systems and devices evolve continuously and rapidly: there is a clear need for integrated approaches
and mechanisms for their continuous deployment. On the other hand, users of such complex IoT systems expect them to be completely secure and reliable.

The SCRATCh approach to this problem is threefold:
1. We apply cryptographic elements at multiple levels (software, firmware and hardware) to improve the management of device identities and the establishment of reliable security metrics.
2. We create a DevOps IoT platform framework which integrates continuous deployment strategies at multiple levels (cloud software, device software, device firmware) and implements security- by-design.
3. We realise processes and procedures for the roll-out of secure and reliable system upgrades.

The SCRATCh project investigates these three approaches within the scope of a specific use case: the retail store of the future, in which IoT devices inform and guide users through the store.

Contribution

Almende is in charge of creating the software platform which facilitates information transfer between IoT devices and the cloud, presenting and visualizing the results to end-users, and performing cryptography on a software level. The software platform will be built using principles of security-by-design and continuous deployment.

Results

The project will lead to generic insights and principles in the field of cybersecurity which can be further commercialized in new innovation projects, and through the spin-off companies Sense IoT and Crownstone. In the latter cases, security-by-design represents a key feature requested by customers.

More info?

Need specific information regarding the project? Please contact our senior consultant for more information.

Jan Kraaijeveld

Senior consultant

+31 (0)10 404 9444

jan@almende.com

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