CICERO, the Cervera cybersecurity network, gains momentum at its second meeting in Barcelona

ICERO brings together five leading technology centers in Spain, fostering collaboration between Gradiant, CEIT, FIDESOL, ITCL, and i2CAT to maximize technological transfer and socio-economic impact.

During the meeting held in Barcelona, the consortium members presented technical advancements, covering topics such as generative AI, 5G networks, cryptography, and anomaly detection in hybrid environments.

The Gradiant Technology Center, leader of the CICERO alliance—the only Cervera network dedicated to cybersecurity in Spain—showcased its latest achievements during the event. This meeting enabled consortium members, including Spain’s leading technology centers (Gradiant, CEIT, FIDESOL, ITCL, and i2CAT), to share significant progress in key areas such as threat identification, post-quantum cryptography, generative artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity in hybrid industrial networks. The event also served as a vital platform for transferring research results to the productive sector.

This initiative aims to align research with business needs, maximizing technological transfer, consolidating its role as a leader in applied innovation, and tackling essential cybersecurity challenges—from threat identification to incident response and recovery—with the ultimate goal of maximizing the economic and social impact of the developed technologies.

Specifically, Gradiant presented its advancements in threat intelligence (honeypots) to capture attacker data in real-world environments, inventory and vulnerability identification (cryptographic or exploitable through side-channel attacks), privacy-enhancing techniques, anomaly detection based on multi-agent systems (MAS), and forensic image analysis tools for manipulation detection.

The event provided a platform for each partner to showcase preliminary results from their research lines. FIDESOL highlighted its work on generative artificial intelligence, addressing challenges such as “hallucinations” in AI models and exploring its potential to merge heterogeneous data and generate risk reports.

CEIT presented advancements in anomaly detection and monitoring of hybrid industrial networks, while ITCL showcased post-quantum protection tools and deep learning-based methods for malware characterization. i2CAT, focusing on 5G networks, shared its work on blockchain-based multifactor authentication and advanced cyberattack detection.

Recognized as a Cervera Center of Excellence, CICERO is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation with an investment of €3.5 million under the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan. The initiative is set to conclude in mid-2025, aiming to strengthen collaboration among technology centers, enhance data and system protection, and train specialized talent in cybersecurity.

Centro de Excelencia Cervera