Background

The Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), established in 1983, is the largest Greek State Research and Development Centre. FORTH hosts multiple major research institutes distributed across Greece.

Within the CONSOLE project, FORTH makes significant contributions across both technical development and platform validation dimensions, ensuring the project delivers practical, scalable, and innovative cybersecurity solutions for the European software development sector.

Technical contribution: Code Dynamic Analysis Framework

As part of the CONSOLE project, FORTH delivers a sophisticated code dynamic analysis framework designed to address contemporary security challenges in software development. The framework employs an innovative approach that significantly reduces the level of detail in analysis, leading to substantial improvements in computational efficiency compared to state-of-the-art technologies. A primary objective is to enable parallel execution of code analysis alongside the program in production environments, thereby facilitating continuous monitoring and information gathering about code behaviour without interrupting system operations. This capability addresses a fundamental limitation in current cybersecurity methodologies: comprehensive code security analysis typically requires isolated testing environments that cannot fully capture the complexities and conditions of production deployments.

The framework is engineered for straightforward integration into large, complex codebases through a user-friendly design that allows programmers to incorporate the tool with minimal disruption, requiring only a single line of code. This ease of adoption helps remove barriers that often prevent developers from utilising advanced code analysis tools, which typically demand substantial configuration, specialised expertise, or extensive modifications to existing development pipelines. The combination of computational efficiency, intuitive usability, and minimal operational overhead makes the framework particularly well-suited for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that may lack dedicated security teams or extensive resources.

Leadership in overall platform assessment

FORTH also leads the comprehensive assessment of the CONSOLE platform across European SMEs, a critical component of the project's validation strategy. This assessment systematically compiles and analyses results from validation activities conducted with diverse SME partners to produce a comprehensive evaluation of the platform's performance in real-world operational contexts.

Through this evaluation process, FORTH generates essential insights regarding the platform's technical capabilities, resource requirements for integration, implementation complexity, and user interaction characteristics. These findings inform ongoing platform refinement and validate that CONSOLE successfully delivers cybersecurity solutions that balance technical sophistication with practical accessibility and affordability. By leading this assessment, FORTH ensures that the platform's development remains grounded in the actual needs and constraints of European software developers, particularly SMEs who represent a vital segment of the EU's digital economy.

Conclusion

Through its complementary contributions, delivering an innovative code-dynamic analysis framework and leading a comprehensive platform assessment, FORTH ensures that the CONSOLE project bridges the gap between cutting-edge research and practical application, ultimately enhancing cybersecurity resilience across the European software development sector.