New Maritime Cyber-Security To Fight The Pirates On The High Seas
A new research center created at Montreal’s Polytechnique University will now aim to protect the ships from pirated and they are not talking about Blackbeard or Captain Kidd.
Canada’s Maritime Cyber Security Centre of Excellence will combine the expertise of two Polytechnique researchers, Quebec cyber-security startup Neptune Cyber and Davie Shipbuilding. The five-year research project will now focus on cyber-security for critical maritime infrastructures.
Neptune Cyber’s technological director, Jeremy Citone said that it’s time to do something, because the shipping industry is still lagging, technologically.
The critical ship components including the navigation ad motors are more and more connected to the internet to diagnose problems at a distance and to avoid having to send a repairperson onto a ship that could be half a world away.
Polytechnique professor Nora Cuppens said that systems connected to the internet can become potentially attractive targets for hackers, who could try to paralyze a ship in the hopes of extracting a large ransom from the owner.
The main motive is to see to what extent with their background and their expertise can they provide interesting solutions to make these systems resilient. The solutions they know must be adapted so that they can be applied I other specific fields such as the maritime sector.
The hackers have repeatedly shown that they can represent a serious threat. In June 2017, several companies, including Danish shipping giant Maersk, were hit hard by the NotPetya ransomware virus. Maersk took almost two weeks to recover from the attack which is said o have cost the company at least US$300 million.
Montreal’s transit agency was the victim of a ransomware virus attack, last fall that had paralyzed its activities for several days.
Citone said that one can easily imagine what could happen if the cyber-attackers took over the controls of an airplane in flight, or of several dozen cars on the highway. But not many people have questioned themselves about an out-of-control cargo ship steaming down the St. Lawrence Seaway.
According to Cuppens, the International Maritime Organization has required the ship owners and the operators to integrate cyber risk management into their security initiatives. Also, it is the first cyber-security framework for the shipping industry, which previously had been operated without international standards.
Citone said that previously what was in place amounted to the procedures and the guidelines on what to do in the event of a cyber-attack. But what if the attack has already happened and it’s already too late, where you are in the middle of the ocean ad you’re down.
Cuppens has stated that beyond the attacks targeting the port facilities or the ship’s systems, there’s a need to protect the entire supply chain that includes the trucks that bring the merchandise to the port.
Citone added that the ships take up to five years to build, and it is almost impossible to predict what threats could exist. Therefore, the solutions are whether on board or run from a distance.
I am Jessica Gonzalez and i have over 16 years experience in the financial services industry giving me a vast understanding of how news affects the financial markets. She is an active day trader spending the majority of my time analyzing earnings reports and watching commodities and derivatives. I have a Masters Degree in Economics from Westminster University with previous roles counting Investment Banking.
