It is a common viewpoint that the combination of data coming from social media, smartphones and from urban sensors can actually enable the ability to carry out in-depth analyzes and understand complex phenomena based on human behavior, opening new scenarios for the development of numerous innovative services and applications.

By following this research line, the recent paradigm of Social Sensing further emphasized this vision, since it proposed an integrated model in which users themselves are turned into sensors, entities that produce simple rough information which is processed and aggregated in order to generate some valuable human-based findings obtained through the combination and merge of individual-based data. Beyond sensing applications, as those focusing on tracking vehicles to avoid traffic congestions or healthcare tracking and predicting people’s lifestyle, a big research effort has been made to analyze text-based signals, such as those coming from social networks like X or Facebook.

Furthermore, in a scenario where cyberspace events impact on the real world and influence the political, social and cultural spheres, it is essential to have the cognitive, methodological superstructures as well as the cyber-physical infrastructures necessary to guarantee the resilience of civil society.

The purpose of the research is to affect these issues through the proposition of multidisciplinary methods, techniques and tools (IT, psychological, economic, legal, engineering, related to social sciences) capable of operating a Cyber-Social risk management in civil society.

To this end, it is necessary to reinterpret the functions of Cyber Security in Cyber Social contexts: detection, response, and prevention.

• Detection: characterize, identify, understand and predict significant cyber-mediated events and changes in human, social, cultural and political behavior as well as the methods for monitoring and protecting “social” end-points, thus being able to operate with devices (IT and IoT ) and diversified information sources (OSINT/CLOSINT) taking into account the national and international legal framework.  
• Response: defining intervention and cooperation protocols between the main players in civil society in order to guarantee resilience and social security, including through homeland security technologies and the fight against cyber terrorism and cybercrime. The review of the Detection-Response-Prevention cycle will also clarify the limits within which it is possible to find and manage information while protecting the citizen’s right to privacy and the security of civil society.
• Prevention: redefine the processes of census and prevention of “accidents” in the light of new critical assets (individuals, groups, communities, software applications and infrastructures for the public service, etc.), including elements of physical, organizational and applicative security as well as socio-political, economic, psychological and legal context.