The strategic objective of PRAETORIAN is to increase the security and resilience of European critical infrastructures by providing coordinated protection against physical, cyber and blended threats.

This initiative amplifies the results achieved in the previous project SAURON, which focused solely on port infrastructures. PRAETORIAN broadens the spectrum by analysing different sectors such as transport (including ports and airports), energy and healthcare and providing an economic, technological, political and societal approach.

Thanks to PRAETORIAN, a set of specific tools will be developed with the aim of providing real-time information to facilitate decision making. These tools are classified into the following 4 elements:

(i) Information system of the physical part such as CCTV cameras or sensors, called Physical Situational Awareness or PSA.

(ii) Cyber information system such as servers, called Cyber Situational Awareness (CSA).

iii) System that correlates the information from the two previous ones (physical and cyber domain), called Hybrid Situational Awareness or HSA.

iv) Early Warning System (EWS) for coordination between the various parties responsible.

During the development of the above tools, assessments of the threats and vulnerabilities of the three sectors mentioned above will be carried out. This will include the development of digital twins of the infrastructures. These tools will provide constant information to security managers in order to be aware, at all times, of existing threats and thus facilitate their decision-making. In addition, they will have an early warning system for the coordination of the authorities, which will reduce response times.

In this way, PRAETORIAN specifically addresses (preventing, detecting, responding and mitigating) cyber and physical attacks, as well as possible extreme weather events, such as natural disasters, that may affect any critical infrastructure and that may cause the disruption of the transport chain, energy supply or health capacity.