Page 21: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (July 2019)

S

SOFTWARE: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Reclaim your ‘in’ box s the most universal method nied a connection.

B FLEET ARE of electronic communication After a connection is established with

MONITORING yet devised, e-mail is ines- a reputable mail relay server, each in-

FOR RED

Acapable – even at sea. Yet its bound message undergoes a preliminary ubiquity makes it an attractive target for inspection to con? rm its originating IP

KESTRAL hackers. Fortunately GTMaritime has address, previous relay servers, sender’s Reygar said that ferry opera- plenty of ways of stopping malicious address, domain lookups and to detect tor Red Funnel is installing the mails stowing away on vessels unusual message headers. Links con-

Email has been part of our computing tained in the body of the message are

BareFLEET monitoring sys- lives for more than four decades. It’s cross-referenced against domain black- tem on Red Kestrel - its ? rst the most reliable, most universal com- list databases.

dedicated RoRo freight ferry. munication method yet devised online. Any discrepancy or suspect practce

Image courtesy GT Maritime

BareFLEET, a cloud-based

It’s free and easy to start using, every- adds to an overall spam score with mes- one understands what it is, and it offers messages and phishing attempts. sages are rejected if they exceed a pre- monitoring platform that a way to reach absolutely anyone. It’s no “Dealing with email is an additional con? gured threshold. Only after passing couples remote data collection wonder then that more than 250 billion cognitive burden on crew who already this initial inspection are messages al- technology with vessel perfor- messages are hurtling around cyberspace shoulder responsibility for ensuring the lowed into the client’s relay servers.

every day. safety of multi-million dollar vessels,” While no software can directly control mance monitoring software,

The vast majority of the messages ? it- says Jamie Jones, Head of Service at the action of an end user, cybercriminals is designed to provide data to ting from server to server – estimated to GTMaritime. Integral to the company’s are practiced at using language and psy- optimize vessel performance, be upwards of 90% – are junk, ranging GTMailPlus solution, for example, is a chological tricks to coerce users into car- monitor fuel use, and cut ves- from harmless marketing spam to emails mail ? ltering system that protects sys- rying out manual steps which allow or with more dangerous payloads. Today, tems from cyber-threats by continually initiate harmful activity. A common tac- sel downtime. BareFLEET seemingly innocent emails can be used scanning and sifting millions of email tic is to threaten users with some sort of will monitor the health of the to trick end users into parting with infor- messages before they are beamed on- penalty unless they follow instructions. vessel’s two engines and Rolls mation or to click on links which trig- board by satellite. GTMailPlus.Advanced Threat Pro-

Royce Aquamaster thrusters, ger malicious activity. Others may target “Cybercriminals have become much tection (ATP) service introduced deep speci? c types of user through social en- more adept at disguising spoof mes- content inspection, which can detect a identify the most ef? cient gineering: the email itself does not con- sages,” adds Jones. “They do their new breed of stealth malware designed cruising speed, and report on tain any harmful code but the apparent homework into their target audience and to ? y under the radar of traditional anti- opportunities for maintenance originator and method of entry into the compose messages that are unnervingly virus solutions. Deep content inspection network can fool the recipient into car- realistic and plausible. Users need in- works by testing the payload’s behavior that will further increase fuel rying out a process which may result in creasingly sophisticated understanding in a ‘sandboxed’ virtual environment – ef? ciency, such as hull clean- lost revenue. of the content and context of every email effectively a computer inside a computer ing and engine tuning.

Electronic communication is now as they receive to sniff out a rat – and that’s – instead of simply checking its surface embedded in life at sea as it is on land. an unrealistic expectation, especially for known signatures.

Crew use it for everything: from pro- when options are available to automate Importantly, the infrastructure is de- curing supplies and spare parts, to sub- that task.” signed to be scalable. It is designed to mitting paperwork to ports and other To date GTMaritime’s technology respond almost immediately to accom- authorities, and discussions with shore- is found on more than 5,000 ships. As modate unexpected spikes in traf? c, as

Image:Red Funnel based engineers on equipment ? xes. more vessel operators sign up the U.K.- well as cope with a general upward trend

This intrinsic ? exibility of email means based ? rm has invested proportionately in data ? ow between ship and shore as nowadays crew contend with the same in developing its network and serv- vessel owners increasingly adopt digi- unremitting stream of messages and ers to maximize resilience and upgrade tal solutions. To ensure its own service over? owing inboxes as the rest of us. their sleuthing capabilities. The compa- resilience, GTMaritime operates across

Modern clients come with features like ny’s mail gateways now handle almost multiple servers and splits scanning and automated prioritization, thread manage- 300,000 messages daily – or 105 million ? ltering across ? ve data centers. ment and one-click unsubscribe that can messages per year – headed for ships. “Email is now integral to day-to-day help manage the mountain of messages Before mail can enter the GTMaritime vessel operation, and this isn’t going to if you let them. However, in the constant network, the sending server is checked change,” said Jones. “In fact, we are see- battle to reduce the number of unread against multiple reputable blacklist or- ing a steady growth in message traf? c as messages, users can sometimes rush and ganizations. Servers that do not comply owners and operators look to embrace miss the warning signs that expose spoof to proper con? guration standards are de- digital and IoT technologies.” www.marinelink.com 21

MR #7 (18-25).indd 21 7/5/2019 11:36:13 AM