EU H2020 SAURON Project – PPA Pilot Event

The HORIZON 2020 project SAURON (Scalable multidimensionAl sitUation awaReness sOlution for protectiNg European ports (www.sauronproject.eu)), funded by the European Commission under contract 7400477, organized the “Pilot Event of the EU project SAURON” that was held on February 13, 2020, at Piraeus Port Authority, “ALIKIMOS” Cruise Terminal III.

SAURON project addresses the topic CIP-01-2016-2017: Prevention, detection, response and mitigation of the combination of physical and cyber threats to the critical infrastructure of Europe and put the focus on protection of EU Ports under Transport Infrastructure and means of transportation type of CI. The main goal of SAURON is to develop a Situational Awareness (SA) system to help port operators anticipate and withstand potential cyber, physical or combined threats to their freight and cargo business and to the safety of their employees, visitors, passengers and citizens in the vicinity.

SAURON’s vision is to provide a multi-dimensional “Understanding the Situation” platform to assist port operators to anticipate and cope with potential cyber threats, physical or combined threats to their freight and shipping activities for the safety of workers, visitors, passengers and citizens of the area.

As Mr. Ioannis Papagiannopoulos, PhDc, “SAURON” Project Manager, PPA’s PFSO, said, that the new trend in countering terrorism is the introduction of smart hybrid technology systems where the combination of physical security and cyber security will result in better predictability and prevention of a terrorist attack at the port area.

The true and timely transmission of information from the above systems beyond the rescue of human lives results to business continuity of port facilities.

The operation of the SAURON platform was tested in the context of a terrorist attack scenario on a cruise ship docked in the port of Piraeus.