Imagine you run a power plant or an airport — you have security cameras watching the fences AND IT teams watching the networks, but those two worlds never talk to each other. PRAETORIAN built a system that merges both physical and cyber threat monitoring into a single dashboard, complete with a digital twin of your facility so you can simulate attacks before they happen. They tested it across 9 real critical infrastructures including airports, ports, hospitals, and power plants. The idea is simple: if someone cuts a fence while a hacker hits your network, you see both threats together and respond as one coordinated team instead of two confused ones.
Critical infrastructure operators — power plants, airports, ports, hospitals — face a growing blind spot: their physical security and cybersecurity teams work in silos. A coordinated attack that combines a network intrusion with a physical breach goes undetected because no single system sees the full picture. Worse, when one facility is hit, cascading effects can take down connected infrastructure nearby, and there is no unified way to coordinate response across multiple sites.
PRAETORIAN delivered four integrated systems: a Physical Situation Awareness system, a Cyber Situation Awareness system, a Hybrid Situation Awareness system with digital twins of protected infrastructure, and a Coordinated Response system. These were tied together with advanced visualization interfaces (intelligent HMIs) for managing complex threat data. The full toolset was demonstrated across 9 real critical infrastructures in 3 international pilot clusters.
If you are a power plant operator dealing with increasing cyber-physical attack risks — this project developed a hybrid situation awareness system with digital twins that was piloted at 2 actual power plants. It combines physical security monitoring and cyber threat detection into a single coordinated response, helping you predict cascading effects before they knock out neighbouring infrastructure.
If you are an airport or port authority managing both perimeter security and network threats — this project built and tested a combined threat detection and response system at 2 international airports and 2 ports. It gives your security operations centre one unified picture instead of separate physical and cyber feeds, and alerts you to cascading risks that could affect connected facilities.
If you are a hospital dealing with the nightmare of ransomware attacks hitting medical devices while physical security is managed separately — this project tested its integrated protection toolset at 3 hospitals. It provides coordinated response capabilities and helps first responder teams react to combined threats, reducing the gap between your IT security and building management teams.
The full project received EUR 7,580,898 in EU funding across 24 partners and 9 pilot sites. Exact per-site deployment costs are not published. Contact the coordinator (Electricité de France) for commercial licensing or deployment pricing.
This was tested at full industrial scale across 3 international pilot clusters involving 9 critical infrastructures: 2 airports, 2 ports, 3 hospitals, and 2 power plants. Some pilot clusters were cross-border, demonstrating real-world interoperability between different types of infrastructure.
The project was led by Electricité de France with 24 consortium partners. IP arrangements would be governed by the consortium agreement. Contact EDF or the specific technology provider within the consortium for licensing options.
The project was funded under the EU's SU-INFRA01 topic, which directly targets critical infrastructure protection policy. It addresses the EU's NIS Directive requirements for combined physical and cyber security. Based on available project data, specific certifications are not mentioned.
The project ran from June 2021 to September 2023, with pilot demonstrations completed within that period. Based on available project data, specific deployment timelines for individual sites are not detailed. The system includes multiple modules (physical, cyber, hybrid awareness, and coordinated response) that may be deployed incrementally.
The system was designed with integration in mind — it includes advanced HMI visualization techniques for managing large amounts of data from multiple sources. It was successfully deployed across 9 different critical infrastructures of varying types (airports, ports, hospitals, power plants), suggesting adaptability to different existing security setups.
Electricité de France coordinated the project, with 11 industry partners and 5 research organisations in the consortium. Post-project support would depend on commercial agreements with specific technology providers from the 24-partner consortium across 7 countries.
This is a heavyweight consortium with real credibility. Led by Electricité de France — one of the world's largest energy companies — the 24-partner team spans 7 countries (AT, BE, DE, EL, ES, FR, HR) with a 46% industry ratio (11 industry partners). The presence of 3 universities and 5 research organisations provides the technical depth, while the industry-heavy mix signals that this was built for real-world deployment, not just academic papers. With 3 SMEs in the mix, there may be agile technology providers ready to commercialise specific components. The EUR 7.6 million budget and successful pilots at 9 critical infrastructures across airports, ports, hospitals, and power plants make this one of the more deployment-ready security projects from Horizon 2020.
Electricité de France (EDF), France — a major energy utility. Look for the project coordinator or innovation department via EDF's corporate contacts.
Want an introduction to the PRAETORIAN team or a tailored brief on how their cyber-physical protection system fits your infrastructure? Contact SciTransfer — we connect businesses with EU research teams.
