Integrating components that have high complexity and serve different purposes is a complicated process that involves many approaches and levels of activities both during design, implementation, and development. PUZZLE is no exception to this rule, so to overcome these challenges our researchers follow a two-cycle continuous development and integration approach that will ensure the proper functioning of both platform versions.

The 1st version of PUZZLE’s platform

For this first release, our goal was to provide a working version of the platform that will be used by the PUZZLE demos and external to the project SMEs to test some basic cybersecurity scenarios, and provide feedback towards the final release.

This scenario might sounds simple and solid, but what steps did we follow and what features are included in this first version?

First of all, we had to develop the various components as well as their interfaces as a basis to achieve the first integrated version. In terms of functions, PUZZLE supports the following functions:

• A security orchestration workflow that runs based on the PUZZLE policies
• Security controllers that are used to protect applications deployed in Kubernetes
• Security analytics which are added in the flow
• A user-friendly dashboard that loads and enforces policies
• A Marketplace populated with initial policy templates integrated with the PUZZLE security orchestration flow
• Basic Risk Assessment and Blockchain functionalities
• Connected with the dashboard authentication and authorization services.

How am I supposed to use PUZZLE platform?

We know that a software platform can be difficult to install, configure and use initially, no matter how user-friendly it was designed to be. In the case of PUZZLE this is more critical as our platform will be used by SMEs that do not have the necessary expertise, resources, or staff to perform these processes. In addition, the validation contracts designed by PUZZLE for the coming months require the provision of specific guides for applicants. With this in mind, we have compiled a detailed list of simple steps that will guide an average user to perform these functions.

These instructions refer both to the setup and use of the platform. Based on our expertise, we know that a user guide can save you time and resources that you don’t have.

To support those, we have compiled such instructions that specifically focusing on the user side.

Thus, we provide a detailed flow that can be summarized in the following steps from the perspective of the service customer, provider, and moderator:

• Step 1: Go to the Marketplace, find the desired policy and download.
• Step 2: Go to the User Dashboard and select the desired application.
• Step 3: Go to the Policies section, then upload the download policy by selecting New Policy.

Overall, the PUZZLE dashboard plays a central role in our platform, as it will be the main entry point to the supported services such as the marketplace and the policies section, as well as the command-and-control place for end users.

What’s next?

So far, PUZZLE has achieved a partial integration by offering a basic level functionality of the platform. To be able to release the final version of our cybersecurity platform, we continue to work on developing individual components, all of which will be installed via a unified script or a docker-compose file. In parallel, PUZZLE’s working to improve the usability and adoption of the PUZZLE platform based on the feedback received from extensive internal and external platform testing. As a result, PUZZLE will offer a solution that will not only meet the cybersecurity needs of SMEs but also enable a better user experience.

Author: Netcompany – Intrasoft

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