Cybersecurity Research
Cutting-edge
research for a
cybersecure world
Advancing cybersecurity knowledge and improving the cyber resilience across borders and sectors
Cybersecurity is not just a technological challenge – it affects individuals, businesses and countries. Its effectiveness, or lack thereof, has economic, societal, political and security implications. Our team provides cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary research and innovation in cybersecurity to a wide variety of institutions and organisations. Our socio-economic impact assessments, threat and cybersecurity market analyses, and our insights into European Union cybersecurity certification schemes contribute to the development of new standards and policies for policymakers and decisionmakers.
Benefits

Staying ahead
Our research and innovation help cybersecurity providers keep on top of cybercrime and cyberattacks

Staying resilient
Cyberattacks can happen to anyone. Resilience through information and knowledge helps mitigate the damage

Staying connected
Our work connects relevant stakeholders and builds trusted networks to facilitate the sharing of information, knowledge and good practices

Staying ethical
Our cybersecurity research and solutions consider and address ethical issues, such as privacy, transparency, explainability and confidentiality
Impact and Achievements
Bringing together law-enforcement agencies
Trilateral Research helped set up a working group consisting of Law Enforcement Agencies from across Europe. This working group meets regularly and shares problems and solutions in cybercrime investigations. This increases cross-border cooperation among Law Enforcement Agencies and helps overcome a key challenge to cybercrime investigation.
The reports of this working group can be read here.
Helping EU institutions map the cybersecurity landscape of ‘smart homes’
Trilateral Research contributed to a threat landscaping study for ‘smart homes’, specifically on ‘converged media’, i.e., – media characterised by the merging of traditional broadcast services with the Internet such as (smart TVs or media centres). We took stock of the security challenges arising from the usage of these services. Following the analysis, we contributed to a list of good practices and considerations when designing smart homes.
The final report can be read here.
Actively contributing to information security standards
Trilateral Research has been engaging with national, European, and international standardisation committees to develop and inform security standards (e.g., the ISO 2700X family) and domain specific harmonised standards such as CEN/CELEC JTC 19 – Decentralized Identity Management, and CEN/CELEC JTC 21 – Artificial Intelligence. Trilateral also participates in the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 “Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection” through the UK mirror committee and contributes to various standardisation efforts through commenting and voting on drafts, participating in plenary meetings, and linking these efforts with the EC projects that Trilateral is involved with.
Our research collaborations and service outputs provide actionable insights and are valuable tools for policymakers and decisionmakers working to tackle the technical, human and organisational drivers of cybercrime. We help law-enforcement agencies and judicial authorities investigate and prosecute cybercrime more effectively. We also work with commercial partners and cybersecurity providers to understand the full extent of cybercrime and the cybersecurity market in Europe and globally.
Trilateral Research helped set up a working group consisting of Law Enforcement Agencies from across Europe. This working group meets regularly and shares problems and solutions in cybercrime investigations. This increases cross-border cooperation among Law Enforcement Agencies and helps overcome a key challenge to cybercrime investigation.
The reports of this working group can be read here.
Trilateral Research contributed to a threat landscaping study for ‘smart homes’, specifically on ‘converged media’, i.e., – media characterised by the merging of traditional broadcast services with the Internet such as (smart TVs or media centres). We took stock of the security challenges arising from the usage of these services. Following the analysis, we contributed to a list of good practices and considerations when designing smart homes.
The final report can be read here.
Trilateral Research has been engaging with national, European, and international standardisation committees to develop and inform security standards (e.g., the ISO 2700X family) and domain specific harmonised standards such as CEN/CELEC JTC 19 – Decentralized Identity Management, and CEN/CELEC JTC 21 – Artificial Intelligence. Trilateral also participates in the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 “Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection” through the UK mirror committee and contributes to various standardisation efforts through commenting and voting on drafts, participating in plenary meetings, and linking these efforts with the EC projects that Trilateral is involved with.
Our Services
The cybersecurity research cluster provides research as a service (RaaS). We provide social, technological, organisational and economic analyses of cybersecurity and policies and politics of cybersecurity legislation in Europe. We specialise in multiple forms of impact assessments (ethical, socio-economic, privacy) of cybersecurity solutions, including validation from stakeholders. We cooperate with leading research institutes, companies and networks to deliver cutting-edge research in the cybersecurity domain.
Our policy research enables our partners and clients to keep up with policy developments and to actively shape policy in their field. We draft recommendations for policy makers at national and supranational level and participate in public policy consultations, e.g., on the European Cyber Resilience Act and the AI Act. We also actively follow the developments of the EU cybersecurity certification schemes and work with our Cybersecurity Service to advise our clients based on their needs. We offer comprehensive policy and legal reviews within the cybersecurity domain.
Cybersecurity requires collective action bringing together multiple skills and perspectives. We have extensive experience in engaging with cybersecurity stakeholders to understand their needs and to build connections. We are adept at discovering stakeholders’ needs and applying them to different research outputs and solutions. We enable cybersecurity stakeholders from different areas to work together in the spirit of co-design.
We collaborate with Law Enforcement Agencies and judicial authorities to enhance their capacity to fight cybercrime. We co-develop tools with our technical partners, co-design training for Law Enforcement Agencies and users with the aim to monitor and increase cybercrime reporting across Europe.
Featured from our Knowledge Library

Harmonising European cybersecurity strategies to tackle cybercrime
Trilateral leads 12 partners from across the EU in a three-year Horizon 2020 project examining the drivers of cyber-criminality in the EU with a special focus on the factors that lead young people to cybercrime.

Combating Cybercriminality by Understanding Human and Technical Drivers
Our researchers authored an article for the European Law Enforcement Research Bulletin focussing on the socio-economic impact of cybercrime and the challenges for law enforcement agencies.

Presidential Lecture Series | “The Ethics of Technological Self-Defense” with David Wright
In April 2022, the American University of Paris hosted its 60th-anniversary Presidential Lecture Series on Technology and the Human Future, with a guest lecture from David Wright, Trilateral’s Chief Research Officer, in a talk entitled “The Ethics of Technological Self-Defence.”