The University of Tartu HPC Centre will participate in a new EU-funded project, Cybersecurity Certification and Assessment Tools (CCAT), whose aim is to strengthen the practical implementation of European cybersecurity regulations through advanced open-source solutions. The project, launched in January 2026 and running for 36 months, is coordinated by the Faculty of Informatics at Masaryk University (FI MU), Czech Republic.

The aim of the CCAT project is to translate cutting-edge applied academic research results into practically usable open-source tools that will support the implementation of the Cybersecurity Act (CSA) and the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) across industry, regulatory authorities, and public administration. In this way, the project responds to the growing need for continuous security assessment of digital systems in an environment of increasingly complex regulatory landscape.

The project methodology is based on four established academic tools, which will be further developed, integrated, and adapted for broader use in both the private and public sectors:

• TLS-Scanner: A tool for assessing the security of TLS clients and servers to identify vulnerabilities and configuration issues.
• SCRUTINY: A set of tools for evaluating cryptographic implementations in both hardware devices (e.g., smart cards) and software libraries.
• ALVIE: A tool for analyzing the security architectures of embedded systems with respect to vulnerabilities, combining formal methods with vulnerability research.
• sec-certs: A platform for analyzing the environment of certified cybersecurity products, mapping the dependencies between certified products and newly emerging vulnerabilities.

The project places a strong emphasis on usable security research: “Cybersecurity regulations are becoming increasingly complex, and a reliable set of tools is essential for navigating these dynamically evolving requirements,” says the project’s principal investigator, Prof. Václav Matyáš (Centre for Research on Cryptography and Security, FI MU). “Our goal is to ensure that the tools we develop are understandable, accessible, and usable beyond the academic sphere.”

The CCAT project consortium brings together leading academic and industrial partners from across Europe. In addition to Masaryk University, the project involves Paderborn University (Germany), Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy), Cybernetica AS (Estonia), Monet+ (Czech Republic), 10Sec S.r.l. (Italy), and the University of Tartu (Estonia). The project is further supported by the participation of two associated partners from the Czech Republic, Red Hat and Tropic Square.

Young researchers and PhD students at the universities will be actively involved in the project, gaining the opportunity to work in an international environment, contribute to applied research with a direct impact on EU legislation, and establish professional contacts across academia, industry, and the public sector. Participation in the project will offer them new opportunities for professional and career development beyond the academic sphere.

CCAT will contribute to the creation of a more transparent, accountable, and resilient digital environment in the European Union. Regulatory and certification bodies will be able to use CCAT tools to verify the security of specific products and services, while technology developers will gain clearer guidance on meeting European cybersecurity requirements. In this way, the project will significantly enhance the competitiveness and integrity of the EU’s digital single market.

“CCAT connects research, regulation, and practice to ensure that European cybersecurity regulations lead to genuinely more secure digital products for businesses, the public sector, and everyday users,” summarizes Prof. Matyáš.

The involvement of the University of Tartu as a partner in the CCAT project is a significant achievement, highlighting its strong position in the field of cybersecurity.

The Cybersecurity Certification and Assessment Tools (CCAT) project is an Innovation Action under the Horizon Europe program (HORIZON-IA, topic: HORIZON-CL3-2024-CS-01-01 – Approaches and tools for security in software and hardware development and assessment) with a total budget of €4,223,156.08. More about the project: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101225878.

The project funded under Grant Agreement No. 101225878 is supported by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre. Neither the European Union nor the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre can be held responsible for them.

Coordinator Contact:
prof. Václav Matyáš
matyas@fi.muni.cz

The University of Tartu Contact:
Gular Samadova
gular.samadova@ut.ee