TalTech Cybersecurity Research Group

And in true Eurovision spirit - you know what’s Too Epic to Be True? Last week’s TalTech - Tallinna Tehnikaülikool Innovation Festival. ✨

This year gave us a chance to talk about some topics that are becoming harder to ignore: AI, cybersecurity, trust, and how we make sense of information online.

Our team contributed with two talks and a panel discussion, and the conversations continued well after the sessions ended, which is usually a good sign.

If you missed it, the full recording is available on YouTube 🎥

⏱️ 58:53: Küberturve tehisintellekti ajastul
Rain Ottis on cybersecurity in the age of AI.

⏱️ 3:02:35: Bu****it Asymmetry: AI muddies the waters, but generated content is not the problem
Matthew Sorell on AI-generated content, misinformation, and why the technology itself may not be the core issue.

🎙️ Panel discussion: Trust, like a strategic value
with Liisa Past, Kristjan Krips, Lauri Luht, and Rain Ottis discussing trust as a strategic value across cybersecurity, communication, and government.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14g8-xkSKTc

Thanks to everyone who joined the discussions, asked questions, and helped make the event genuinely interesting

It'll be just as epic next year - see you in 2027!

Let’s step away from the computers for a second 💻➡️🍦

When TalTech - Tallinna Tehnikaülikool dropped an ice cream, we did what any self-respecting group of researchers would do: we immediately turned it into… our very own type of research. Obviously.

Celebrating April birthdays in the team = perfect excuse for a live “production taste test” 🎂🚀

Production results (a.k.a. break room validation):

✔️ Taste: solid
✔️ Sweetness: well-balanced (no overload detected)
✔️ Bonus feature: pleasant tangy kick
✔️ Bugs: none found (QA approved)
✔️ User feedback: 100% approval rate (review process suspiciously efficient 👀)

As in cybersecurity, the rule still stands: even the most secure system fails if users don’t enjoy it. So if something is going to work, it has to be understandable, usable, and actually fit into human behavior, not just theory.

Turns out usability matters… especially in dessert engineering 🍦

Deployed. Approved. Consumed in record time.

Big thanks to the amazing researchers who made our summer a little sweeter - definitely a seasonal favorite 😄

If you haven't had the chance to do it yet - the weather is getting warmer, go grab yourself a cone and enjoy!

Winter School, Chapter Two: Agents, Incidents, and a Proper Grand Finale 🚀📖

The final week arrived quietly... and then immediately refused to stay quiet.

We dove straight into the world of cyber-physical systems with Shaymaa, where bits meet atoms and nothing is ever just digital* 🔧💻. From there, Sille guided us through incident handling, open source intelligence, and threat intelligence 🕵️‍♀️🔍 a reminder that the clues are always out there, if you know how (and where) to look.

Next came an introduction to digital forensics with Pavel 🧬💾. Traces were followed, systems interrogated, and suddenly nothing felt truly invisible anymore.

We then heard from Elif, who talked about the history of space and military actions in space 🛰️ and the final lecture came from Risto, who wrapped things up with a practical look into the world of a Security Operations Center ( ) 📊🚨, neatly tying together many of the threads from the past two weeks.

Somewhere in between all of this, we also managed a study visit to e-Estonia 🇪🇪✨ because no Winter School here is complete without seeing a digital society in action.

The weekend brought a short side quest: many students crossed the bay to Helsinki 🇫🇮⛴️. Finland was great, they said - but Estonia won in the end… because it wasn't as cold as our neighbours 🥶😉.

To keep energy levels up, some lecturers came armed with sweets 🍬 and local Estonian kohuke 🍫 - a strategic move that was highly appreciated and very effective.

Between lectures, the battles never stopped. Snowballs flew outside ❄️⚔️, mini-footballs rolled inside ⚽, and competitive spirits remained strong no matter the temperature.

And then came the finale!

When it was time for students to demonstrate what they had learned over these past two weeks, they delivered presentations 🎤👏 that were sharp, thoughtful - and fun! They even dared to include the Winter School staff in their slides, proving that learning and humour can, in fact, coexist.

And just like that, this chapter's closed.

Brains full 🧠, energy spent, friendships formed 🤝, and memories made - from cyber incidents to snowball skirmishes.

The end…