“Vicomtech contributes to the resilience of critical entities with the development of advanced Artificial Intelligence-based security technologies.”

Critical and sensitive infrastructures are the systems and services that form the backbone of our society. Their interruption or destruction, such as the massive blackout experienced in Spain or the recent cyberattacks on European airports, would have a serious impact on the health, safety, or economic stability of the population, and therefore on our social well-being. The complexity of their internal processes, technologies, and interdependence makes these entities especially sensitive to digital and physical threats, but also, and notably, to the hybridization of both.

European, state, and regional administrations are working to ensure social resilience against the growing threat to critical infrastructures. From the Sensitive Infrastructure Protection Plan of the Basque Country (PISE) to the transposition of new European Directives into the state legal and regulatory framework, the common effort seeks to protect, maintain, and strengthen essential services. This framework also promotes collaboration between public and private agents, authorities, operators, industry, and technology centers such as Vicomtech.

In the current scenario of uncertainty, Vicomtech contributes to the resilience of critical entities with the development of advanced Artificial Intelligence-based security technologies. From intelligent video analytics for video surveillance to technology for detecting and responding to cyber threats, its research strengthens anticipation, response, and recovery from physical, digital, or hybrid incidents. AI adds value by improving technological capabilities and facilitating a qualitative leap against current and future risks. Functions such as information extraction, analysis of unwanted behaviors, or semi-automatic generation of response plans for digital infrastructures (IT/OT/IoT) are key according to European regulations such as CER or NIS2, transposed into the nationally mandatory legal framework.

Vicomtech's involvement in European, national, and local research ecosystems positions it as a leading center in security technologies. Being the national technology center with the highest return in security from the Horizon Program in the last 10 years gives it visibility into priority risks and solutions proposed by the EU. The recognition of its research work makes it a reference advisor on technological matters for both the European Commission (in the European Community for Security Research and Innovation, CERIS) and its agencies (members of the Advisory Committee for R&D of the European Cybercrime Centre, EC3, of Europol), and drives the center to remain at the forefront of the innovation demanded by critical infrastructures.

Vicomtech's impact transcends Europe, having repercussions on the local, regional, and state industrial fabric. Its objective is to strengthen the capacities of companies through disruptive technology resulting from research, actively participating in local ecosystems, and making its knowledge available to operators and the security provider industry. Thus, Vicomtech contributes to the resilience of critical infrastructures and citizen well-being, while boosting technological competitiveness and European strategic autonomy in security.