OSPREY – Online Safety and Security for Protection of Public-Facing Professionals and Democratic Resilience
Violence and harassment against elected officials and other public-facing professionals (PFP), especially local police forces, are increasing across Europe, particularly in online environments. Politicians and law enforcement officers are the most exposed, often alongside their families. These attacks, often presented as a means of holding these professionals accountable, have dramatic consequences on their well-being and their participation in democratic life. It is therefore essential to provide these actors and their organisations with effective mechanisms to prevent, manage and mitigate these risks.
- Create a knowledge base on attack methods and attackers’ motivations to help improve security strategies
- Develop AI-based tools, training, and toolkits for PFPs and their families, their organisations, law enforcement, and policymakers to help prevent and reduce online harm.
- Raise public awareness about the impact of online harm and encourage allies and witnesses to get involved in protecting targeted professionals.
The project activities are organised into several key phases:
- Legal and well-being support: Develop an app that provides personalised advice to professionals and their families.
- Research and analysis: Study existing laws and analyse the online threat landscape to define the technical and non-technical needs of future solutions.
- Co-develop detection tools: Build AI tools that can detect sensitive information and online attacks targeting professionals.
- Reporting and mitigation solutions: Create risk assessment tools as well as tools to investigate online incidents
- Pilot testing: Test the developed tools in real-life exercises with law enforcement and targeted professionals.
The project is led by Centric – Sheffield Hallam University (United Kingdom). The partners are Ετηνικο Kentro Erevnas Και Technologikis Anaptyxis (Greece), Cybercrime Research Institute Gmbh (Cri) (Germany) , Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (Eur) (Netherlands) , European Forum for Urban Security (France) , Sisaministerio (Finland) , Ministere De L’interieur (France), Global Cyber Alliance Belgium Asbl (Belgium) , Home Office (United Kingdom) , Erevniτικο Ρανepistimiako Institouto Systimaton Epικοινονιον Και Ypologiston (Greece) , Camara Municipal De Lisboa (Portugal) , Malta Police Force (Malta) , Mcmaster University (Canada) , Scottish Police Authority (United Kingdom) , Fundacion Centro De Tecnologias De Interaccion Visual Y Comunicaciones Vicomtech (Spain) , Victim Support Europe Aisbl (Belgium) , Cyberpeace Institute (Switzerland).
Efus works with local authorities and local police forces in its network. Its role is to secure the formal participation of several cities in testing and validating the developed solutions. Efus ensures that the tools meet local operational needs and helps share best practices with European local authorities. Finally, it leads advocacy efforts with European decision-makers, turning the project results into public policy recommendations.
December 2025 – November 2028
Asma Kaouech – Senior Programme Manager – kaouech@urbansecurity.org
Moumtaez Ben Mabrouk – Programme Manager – benmabrouk@urbansecurity.org
Co-funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No 101225639. Views and opinions expressed are, however,those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union nor the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union or the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
