Maritime and port cybersecurity.

This article is also available in French.

We have already discussed autonomous maritime vehicles in several previous articles, notably in the context of the first trials of autonomous ferries in Finland, in an article about the future of maritime information systems, and when reviewing some of the emerging regulatory references on the subject.

In the maritime domain, different categories of autonomous systems exist or are expected to emerge, including UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), USVs (Unmanned Surface Vehicles), and UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles).

This article is also available in French.

In February 2020, the United States created the Maritime Transportation System Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MTS-ISAC), whose website has since been launched. The MTS-ISAC was established by a group of U.S. maritime stakeholders as a non-profit association (501(c)(6), broadly comparable to a French non-profit association) with the goal of promoting cybersecurity information sharing across the maritime community.

A growing awareness within the maritime sector

This article is also available in French.

By now, after reading the various articles on this site, you have probably understood that maritime information systems contain vulnerabilities. The real challenge is that the future of maritime information systems is being built while many of these vulnerabilities remain unresolved. It is a bit like adding extra floors to a house while the concrete of the ground floor has not yet fully set. In short, it is risky. Ships being built today are still insufficiently secured, yet they are designed to remain in service until around 2060.

This article is also available in French.

Naval Dome, an Israeli company, announced that it has equipped a luxury yacht (MY Lucky Me) with its maritime cybersecurity solution.

According to the company, the solution includes host-level protection (endpoint protection) combined with cloud-based cybersecurity capabilities (cloud-based solution). Nothing particularly revolutionary at first glance, but what stands out most is the integration approach: rather than operating in isolated silos, the solution appears to cover both IT and OT systems on board. That is clearly the direction the sector should be moving toward.

This article is also available in French.

The website offshore-energy.biz reports that the number of attempted cyberattacks in the maritime sector has increased by 400% since February 2020. This surge is reportedly linked in part to the widespread adoption of remote working tools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The figure was cited by Naval Dome, an Israeli cybersecurity company previously mentioned on this site, notably in relation to the cyber defense of a yacht. Within this reported 400% increase, Naval Dome notes a rise in various forms of malware, including ransomware, as well as phishing attempts. These developments occur in a context where social distancing measures, travel restrictions, and economic difficulties have limited the ability of maritime companies to maintain their usual cybersecurity posture.

This article is also available in French.

As discussed several times on this site, the risks associated with satellite-based positioning and vessel tracking systems are numerous. In this context, the European Space Agency (European Space Agency, ESA) has recently announced that it is funding a feasibility study to develop solutions aimed at securing these systems.

ESA has awarded a contract to the Swiss company CYSEC SA to identify possible approaches for strengthening the security of satellite-based ship tracking and positioning services used in the maritime sector. The main risks involve spoofing and jamming of satellite positioning systems (GNSS), as discussed previously in relation to US-Iran tensions in the Persian Gulf and GPS spoofing and jamming.