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As the industry has developed and embraced more advanced technologies, so has the surface of attacks.
Threat actors are quickly adopting new,AI-enabled techniques to increase the volume and sophistication of their attacks.
The reality is that cyberattacks at sea have the potential to be significant and long-lasting.
Onboard system failures and compromises can put the safety of the crew and ship at risk.
So, how can the maritime industry combat this growing threat?
Vice President of Threat Research & Intelligence at BlackBerry.
Too many systems are cloud-dependent to work well when offline.
Attackers only need to flood networks with legitimate-looking commands to gain entry.
Ensuring the security of interconnected systems and protection against remote hacking attempts are critical concerns.
The scenario involved attackers using a phishingemailto install malware on a container ship entering the New York harbor.
This single-ship incident would have disrupted over $1.6 billion in trade, impacting the entire supply chain.
In this simulation, the crew received an email from their onshore support team asking for a chart update.
This points to a key vulnerability within the industry; human error and lack of cybersecurity training.
The simulation even tested the scenario of crew members connecting e-cigarettes to the ship’s bridge.
The results showed that in every scenario, malicious software can and will board the ship eventually.
Enhancing cyber resilience at sea
Industrycollaborationto strengthen collective defenses is vital.
Implementing advanced technological solutions like intrusion detection systems and encryption protocols can protect critical systems from unauthorized access.
Employing zero-trust strategies, likenetworkand data-centric segmentation, is also essential for continuous access control and security validation.
Finally, the maritime industry must review its critical event management processes.
Maritime companies should harness a secure emergency notification system with incident response tools and capabilities.
Only then will the industry truly be prepared to tackle cyber takeovers at sea.
We’ve featured the best encryption software.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc.
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