Page 25: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2017)

Cyber Vigilance at Sea: The New Norm

By Captain Andrew Kinsey,

Senior Marine Risk Consultant, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty he risk of cyber attacks on vessels at sea continues to be signi? cant, and it’s not going

Taway any time soon. Each year, it seems, there are more and more reports of hacks that have resulted in loss of critical data, ? nancial loss, or problems with IT systems or shipborne systems functionality.

Shipowners have been reluctant to share information on actual or attempt- ed breaches for fear of being identi? ed.

However, there’s no shortage of exam- ples of cyber attacks on vessels.

Last August, a French naval contractor was hacked, resulting in the leak of more than 22,000 documents detailing the de- sign of a submarine under construction for the Union Navy. In October, Hewlett

Packard Enterprise Services informed the Navy that an employee’s company laptop was hacked, resulting in the opening of more than 134,000 personal records of sailors. In 2014, an investiga- tion into the collision between the multi- purpose cargo ship Rickmers Dubai and an unmanned crane barge revealed that the USB thumb drive had been used to store a movie, an abuse which risked corrupting valuable data.

Hackers attacking a ship’s operating system may be attempting to obtain sev- eral types of information. Some seek to obtain the cargo manifest and container numbers so they can locate valuable pieces of cargo. Others are after vessel

IP addresses so they can breach corpo- rate security. And, while less likely, it’s also possible that some seek to spoof the ship.

Awareness is Growing

The good news is there’s growing awareness about the risk of maritime cyber attacks. Several resources are now available to help mariners learn about common vulnerabilities to onboard computer-base networks and industrial control systems, including both opera- tional and informational technologies.

One good example is BeCyberAwareAt-

Sea.com, a global maritime and offshore www.marinelink.com 25

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