The Netherlands’ digital fortitude and resilience

First-class cybersecurity solutions for our national digital security

The Dutch defence and security organisations also have their own state-of-the-art resources to ensure the safety of the Netherlands in the digital domain. They include the National Police and the National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism and Security (NCTV). Together, they are responsible for our national security. It is therefore essential that their knowledge and resources are maintained at the highest level. And that is only possible if we continue to innovate.

We are committed to this. We stand for a society that can deal effectively with digital threats in order to continue to exploit digital opportunities. That is why we are working with our partners on developing innovative cyber security solutions for our security organisations. Now and into the future.

Within TNO, over 120 experts are active in multidisciplinary cyber security research. That is unique, and makes us the independent centre of expertise for applicable knowledge of cyber security.

Combating cybercrime

We are working on applicable technologies to make criminal entities traceable on the dark web.

Cybercriminals use a variety of techniques. We therefore cooperate closely with police forces both at home and abroad. With a close-knit multidisciplinary team of computer and social scientists, we create visible impact in detecting and combating cybercrime.

We are currently working on applicable technologies to detect the use of phishing kits, and to make criminal entities on the dark web traceable. And we use AI to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Professional cyber workforce

Cyber security experts are in great demand, and the shortage will only increase in the years to come. We therefore adopt a multidisciplinary approach to address the challenges posed by shortages of cyber professionals. Together with partners from the 'golden triangle' (government, education and business), we are developing a portfolio of innovations to meet this collective challenge.

Encouraging ‘safe behaviour’ of employees is one of the pillars of this integrated approach. Human behaviour plays an important role in an organisation's cyber resilience. By far the majority of all cyber incidents can be attributed to human actions.

We therefore develop and optimise strategies to guide behaviour in a safe direction. For example, we originally developed the Cyber Cube model for the Ministry of Defence. Now, organisations use it to quickly identify the areas in which they need to train their people.

Digital resilience of weapon systems

In the 21st century, physical armour is no longer enough to ensure the continuity of military operations. To protect ICT systems in and around our weapons systems from cyber threats, an ultramodern digital armour is also needed.

This is why we are working hard on specific applications for, among other things, cyber security risk management, security architecture, monitoring & detection, and the automation of cyber security measures.

To this end, we use our multidisciplinary mix of expertise. This includes knowledge disciplines such as the military environment, cybersecurity technology, behavioural sciences and the electromagnetic spectrum.

We work on integrated solutions

Knowledge development and innovation in the field of cyber security is badly needed to stay ahead of cyber criminals and to deal with new digital threats. This is multidisciplinary research across the knowledge network that looks at both short and long-term solutions. We always do this together.

Together with our partners, TNO develops innovative solutions in the areas of cybercrime, military cyber operations, cyber security and cyber resilience. This is how we contribute to the Dutch Cyber Security Agenda (NCSA), Dutch Digitisation Strategy (NDS), Defence Cyber Strategy (DCS) and Dutch Cyber Security Research Agenda III (NCSRA III). Our experts support organisations and their people to ensure our digital security today and into the future.