On 19 March 2026, the CHESS Demo Day took place at the Palo Alto Club in Tallinn. Organised by the Estonian Information System Authority (RIA / NCSC‑EE) and followed by the RIA CyberMeetUp, the event focused on demonstrating practical cybersecurity tools and solutions developed within the CHESS project, with a strong emphasis on real‑world applicability and pilot use.
The Demo Day was designed as a hands‑on, practice‑oriented event for cybersecurity professionals from across government institutions and organisations supporting the Estonian public sector. Participants included experts from security agencies, CERT teams, IT and telecommunications companies, system administrators and policy leaders. The programme aimed to show how research outputs can be transformed into usable tools and how collaboration between research, public authorities and industry can strengthen cybersecurity capabilities.
Several solutions developed within different CHESS challenge areas were presented and demonstrated. These included FREAS, a modelling and analysis tool supporting the assessment of forensic readiness in software systems, and sec‑certs, a system that enables automated analysis of security certifications and their relationship to known vulnerabilities. Both tools address practical challenges faced by organisations in managing security, compliance and incident response.
Cryptography‑focused demonstrations included MeeSign, an open‑source platform for threshold signing and decryption that supports practical evaluation of collaborative cryptographic schemes, and a hardware‑accelerated post‑quantum traffic encryptor developed at Brno University of Technology. The latter showcased high‑speed, quantum‑safe encryption implemented directly in hardware, highlighting how post‑quantum technologies can be deployed in operational environments today.
Human‑centric aspects of cybersecurity were addressed through INJECT, a digital platform for designing and running tabletop exercises for crisis preparedness. The platform enables interactive, scenario‑based training and was presented together with a short demonstration and the option for participants to access and explore the system after the event.
Overall, the CHESS Demo Day demonstrated how cybersecurity research can lead to concrete, deployable solutions with immediate relevance for practice.
