George Kokkinis
Georgios Kokkinis (MSc, CEng), (male) is a senior researcher - project manager, with more than 20 years of experience in security field and in the telecoms industry. In his current assignment, at the Centre for Security Studies (KEMEA), of the Hellenic Ministry of Citizen Protection, George is coordinating a H2020 research project and at the same time participates in a number of security (both physical and Cyber) research activities. George is interested in the analysis of end user requirements, the formulation of capability gaps and policy recommendations stemming from lessons learned from security research. Prior to that, George worked for Fortune-500 companies in a number of projects in Greece, the Balkans and in Israel.
Sessions
The THOR methodology is the most essential building block in a chain that aspires to influence the development of security solutions and produce meaningful recommendations to policy and decision makers. Initially, in order to identify operational gaps that security practitioners face, specific working scenarios are formulated and developed, exposing an array of possible threats and responses. Then, analysing these scenarios with different categories and ranks of security practitioners offers a well-rounded, comprehensive insight into the needs that should be fulfilled and the operational capabilities to be developed or complemented. This detailed detection and documentation of capabilities serves as an impact analysis that offers the canvas that will be used to pinpoint and categorise individual attributes that touch upon the THOR methodology’s four dimensions: the Technological, the Human, the Organisational, and the Regulatory dimension. Based on the produced findings, a strategy shall be outlined so that practitioners are able to weigh-in on the cross-over between gaps and urgencies and prioritise the fulfillment of their needs by utilising three time horizons: short-term, mid-term, and long-term.
A crucial element of the THOR methodology -and the purpose of this paper – is to demonstrate how each capability gap interacts with the THOR dimensions, revealing the interconnection of deficits. Understanding the ad hoc interplay of the four THOR dimensions is crucial to optimally grasp the challenges that need to be overcome. For instance, there are attributes that appear at first sight technological, nevertheless the sole adoption of a pertinent technological solution would not address core issues and deficits, if professional development (human-related dimension) or acquisition of expertise (organisational-related dimension), and/or a supportive legal framework (regulatory dimension) are not in place beforehand.
THOR methodology assist practitioners to carefully identify their capability needs, prioritise them, by utilizing their operational experience. The application of a multiple-dimensional approach in a field as vast as security, considers expertise and experience by various security stakeholders - their positions and specialties notwithstanding. This, in turn, generates ideas and solutions of practical value, aimed at addressing existing and emerging threats alike.