BEiNG WISE

Twenty-eight months have passed since the first MC meeting in Brussels, in August 2024. During this period,  we held our fourth General Meeting in Rome, Italy.

Rome meeting (26-27 January).   We held our fourth General Meeting (CORE Group, MC, and WG meeting) at Sapienza Università di Roma. 15 face-to-face participants and another 57 online participants came together to discuss the critical intersection of technical cybersecurity, legal frameworks, and human behavior. This meeting includes a distinguished Keynote by  Prof. Dr. Kai Rannenberg, the IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) President, and the IFIP General Secretary Prof. Dr. Anatolii Marushchak. Several presentations of the different Working Groups, and a session with remarks from our COST Scientific Officer, Joana Sousa.

 Fig. 1 Rome meeting

 Fig. 2 Rome meeting

 Fig. 3 Rome meeting

Kaunas meeting (25-26 June).   We held our Technical Joint WG Meeting at Kaunas University of Technology, Department of Computer Sciences, Interdisciplinary Prototyping Laboratory Centre – M-Lab, Kaunas, Lithuania. 38 face-to-face participants and another 13 online participants came together to discuss ongoing activities across all working groups, share updates, and investigate future collaborations in behavioral cybersecurity, wireless networks, legal frameworks, and human behavior. This meeting started with a talk by Prof. Šarūnas Grigaliūnas, titled: “Quantum-safe technologies, running Q-projects and their impact to humans”, which was followed by several presentations of the different Working Groups, and a world cafe session.

 Fig. 4 Kaunas meeting

 Fig. 5 Kaunas meeting

Grants. We have awarded  1 Inclusiveness Target Countries Conference (ITC) grant during our fourth cycle to support research and collaboration within our Action. These grants aim to enable our members to undertake research collaborations with colleagues in different countries. In what follows, we provide examples of such grants:

ITC Conference Grant 

Participant name: Oleksandra Yeremenko

• Dates from 20/5/2026 to 22/5/2026
• Purpose:  “Participation in the IEEE conference”

What have we just accomplished?

Science Communication Best Practice

In May 2026, COST featured BEiNG-WISE as a science communication best practice for the BEiNG-WISEr cybersecurity awareness series. Developed through a Virtual Mobility Grant led by Prof. Sonay Caner-Yıldırım in collaboration with Action members, this 12-part campaign translates multidisciplinary cybersecurity knowledge into accessible, visually engaging, and practical content for everyday internet users.

Using attention-grabbing questions, real-life examples, quick self-checks, and practical takeaways, the series encourages users to pause, verify, and make better-informed decisions before they click, trust, approve, or share online. The initiative demonstrates how social media can become a public learning environment rather than simply a promotional channel.

Read the COST feature:
Science Communication Best Practice: BEiNG-WISE

D5. Report with the conceptual framework – cross-layer approach defined for all the WGs. D5. Has been concluded and will be online soon.

Joint publications

• K. Tsantikidou, V. Loscri, N. Sklavos, “Cybersecurity Certification Based Program, for Hardware Security Systems”, proceedings of International Conference on Information and Software Technologies (ICIST 2025), Springer, Kaunas, Lithuania, October 16-17, 2025.
• E. Konstantopoulou, E. Mistillioglou, N. Sklavos, M. Milosevic, C. Volos, “AI for Advanced Wireless Security and Privacy Systems”, Chapter in the Book: Handbook of AI in Wireless Networks: Foundations, Techniques, and Emerging Applications, editors Agbotiname Lucky Imoize, Abdulwaheed Musa, Yuichi Sei, CRC Press, 2026.
• K. Tsantikidou, N. Sklavos, I. Symeonidis, “Anonymity and Privacy-enhancing Mechanisms for AI-based e-Health Systems”, Chapter in the Book: Transformative Cloud Computing, IoT and Extended Reality, editors Carlos Rompante Cunha, Nishu Gupta, Srinivasa Kiran Gottapu, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-032-03553-0, 2026.
• Dolantina Hyka, Erarda Vuka, Marija S. Milošević, “The Future of Web Security: Advanced Testing and Cryptographic Defense,” WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, vol. 23, pp. 253-261, 2026, DOI:10.37394/23209.2026.23.19
• J. Bohata, J. Romero-Huedo, J. Mora, S. Zvánovec, and B. Ortega, “Analog optical X-haul in cell-free network architecture for 6G,” Opt. Lett. 51, 3096-3099 (2026).
• W. Ahmmad. Beyond the Physical Layer: Integrating Human-Centric Behavioral Trust Mechanisms in 6G Joint Sensing and Communication Architectures. The 32nd International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT 2026), Thessaloniki, Greece.
• Salko KOVAČIĆ, Ivana BILIĆ, “AI-enhanced social engineering: Emerging threats and human-centric countermeasures”, Romanian Journal of Information Technology and Automatic Control, ISSN 1220-1758, vol. 36(1), pp. 63-76, 2026. https://doi.org/10.33436/v36i1y202605
• S. R. Teli, S. Vitek, Z. Ghassemlooy, and S. Zvanovec, “Steganographic Optical Camera Communication: A Framework for Secure Wireless Data Transfer,” in IEEE Access, vol. 14, pp. 90444-90454, 2026

All WGs are working on Deliverable Six –  D6. Report with the elaboration of solutions beyond the existing approaches for each domain considered stand-alone. All Working Groups will be involved.

The fourth Training School (24-28 August) in Villeneuve d’Ascq, France. The training school, titled CyberEM – Cybercrime from the techno to the crime, is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge of wireless communication systems and the practical realities of cybercrime. More details are available here: https://beingwise.eu/training-schools/fourth-training-school/

The Fifth Training School (7-11 September) in Split, Croatia. The training school, Cybersecurity, and its multifaceted aspects will address multivariate aspects of cybersecurity. More details are available here: https://beingwise.eu/training-schools/fifth-training-school/

CORE-GROUP Meeting  (23-24 September) in Brussels, Belgium. The core group will meet to assess and discuss Being-Wise Action progress. 

The Action has active LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/being-wise-cost/) and Instagram (beingwise.cost) accounts; please follow us and activate the “Notifications” to stay tuned to our updates.

Our next newsletter is due to be circulated in December 2026.