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

Forthcoming

Status as published by the data source.

Sign in to bookmark this

Expected Outcome:
Project results are expected to contribute to some or all of the following outcomes:

• Critical infrastructure operators and authorities have improved awareness of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and their potential impact on security of their operations;
• Toolbox for OSINT mapping, including enhanced analysis and risk flagging is developed and available to relevant stakeholders;
• Critical infrastructure operators and authorities have improved incident response, emergency plans and business continuity models;
• Removal of potentially harmful OSINT from the public domain in order to counter/prevent preparations and attempted attacks against critical entities, including the lone wolf and hybrid scenarios;
• Awareness campaigns and training curricula for critical entities’ employees are developed. Scope:
The malicious use of Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is a known concern and technique used by offenders to retrieve personal, professional, and official or technical information about entities and their employees either to immediately plot illegal actions or use it to access more sensitive data with social engineering techniques like tailored data phishing. Although singular information may seem harmless, their critical mass coupled with reasoning and automated processing of large data blocks, could reveal critical vulnerabilities and possible attack vectors. This modus operandi is of special concern for critical infrastructure operators and authorities, as it can be used to aggregate sensitive information, identify potential protection gaps, discover the security measures, such as camera and sensor locations or target individuals with special access privileges in order to orchestrate more sophisticated and harmful attacks. OSINT can also be used to impede critical infrastructure operations indirectly, gathering information and affecting their supply chains.
Proposals submitted under this topic should analyse the type, amount and accessibility of publicly available information and their usefulness in planning hostile operations against critical entities and their services. They should also parse the role of OSINT for identification and recruitment of insiders, identity theft, impersonation, or launching psychological operations such as foreign information manipulation and interference or disinformation. Moreover, the implications of AI data processing to misuse OSINT potential should be addressed. Any potential OSINT sources should be covered including, but not limited to social media, online fora, cloud resources, public records and databases, lawfully accessible deep web and dark web data, geospatial information, as well as paper archives in the public domain with blueprints, emergency response plans or similar. Proposals should especially consider scenarios including hybrid threats and lone wolves and develop tools and awareness campaigns to mitigate such threats.
Proposals should build upon outcomes and tools of other relevant projects, adapting, optimising and integrating them when necessary to achieve the highest possible technology readiness level of the project results. The proposals funded under this topic are expected to engage with the Europol Innovation Lab during the lifetime of the project, including validating the outcomes, with the aim of facilitating future uptake of innovations for the law enforcement community.
In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort.
null
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

Status

Forthcoming

Deadline

4 November 2027 (time not stated)

Opens

5 May 2027

Published

12 December 2025

Total budget

€7,670,000

Grant range

€3,835,000 – €3,835,000

Country

European Union (EU-wide)

Programme

Horizon Europe (HORIZON)

Official page

Open at the source portal

Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)

• PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)Forthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €18,000,000
• Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilienceForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €28,500,000
• Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution gridsForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €28,500,000
• Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in EnergyForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €6,000,000
• Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)Forthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €28,500,000
• Integrated Approaches for Retrofitting Infrastructures with Innovative Energy Storage TechnologiesForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €22,500,000
• Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plantsForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €17,000,000
• Delivery of industrial CCUS clusters – Societal Readiness pilotForthcoming · deadline 1 December 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €30,000,000

All calls under this programme

Similar opportunities

• Enhancing physical protection of critical infrastructuresForthcoming · deadline 4 November 2027 · European Union (EU-wide) · €12,000,000 · same sector, same funder
• Tools and processes to support stress tests of critical infrastructureOpen · deadline 5 November 2026 · European Union (EU-wide) · €9,670,000 · same sector, same funder
• Targeted innovative capabilities for the resilience of critical entities to natural and human-induced disasters, including hybrid scenariosOpen · deadline 5 November 2026 · European Union (EU-wide) · €9,000,000 · same sector, same funder
• Organised crime and drug traffickingOpen · deadline 3 September 2026 · European Union (EU-wide) · same sector, same funder
• Open TopicClosed · deadline 20 November 2024 · European Union (EU-wide) · €5,000,000 · same sector, same funder
• Secure Computing Continuum (IoT, Edge, Cloud, Dataspaces)Closed · deadline 23 November 2023 · European Union (EU-wide) · €28,000,000 · same sector, same funder