Maritime Shipping Is Badly Exposed

 

The team of cyber experts who responded to the incident found that “although the malware significantly degraded the functionality of the onboard computer system, essential vessel control systems had apparently not been impacted.” 

 

Not surprisingly, they also found that the vessel was “operating without effective cyber security measures in place, exposing critical vessel control systems to significant vulnerabilities.”

 

The maritime industry has been discussing how emerging attack surfaces could increase the risk of cyber-attacks capable of crippling ships, or even potentially hijacking autonomous vessels at sea, and the incident brought those conversations to the forefront.

 

Key public and private interests have been actively aware of the challenges created by increasingly connected and automated vessels, and together they have done a good job of engaging with cyber-security vendors to address emerging risks for connected hull, mechanical and electrical (HM&E) systems. However, there is a glaring area of vulnerability on the port management side that has not been fully discussed or addressed: connected systems at our nation’s ports.

 

Port authorities manage the flow of ships in and out, and the flow of cargo off and on each of those ships. Currently, these processes are primarily human directed, an incoming ship will typically check in with a harbormaster and its freight is signed for on paperwork. 

 

It’s a process rife with inefficiencies, and nations and cities are actively working to automate port systems.

The key is establishing identity and tying that identity to the supply chain, taking images of each ship’s serial number, then attaching that marker to its cargo, the dockworker checking it in, and down the chain to the truck that pics up each container. 

Most of the IoT systems now being put in place to digitise these process have not been built with security in mind and are very easy to penetrate.

 

If those systems can be compromised, then high-risk security events could happen, such as having a bad actor tell the system to permit specific containers to pass through a port unsearched. This is how a lot of contraband gets into the country.

With great connectivity comes great risk

 

In order to secure port authorities, two significant challenges must first be addressed.

 

1. Port operations typically fall under municipalities and are governed with fixed, low budgets, meaning they lack the spend and manpower to manage the kinds of dynamic threats that arise through automating processes. The technology costs of automating processes are high, but ports are increasingly able to justify the spend by pointing to what will be saved through the resulting efficiency improvements. 

 

What ports frequently fail to recognise is that the skillset needed to manage the complexity that comes with such a move frequently look very different than what staff can manage. 

 

2. There is great potential for efficiency by marrying the identity of a ship to its cargo to the dockworker checking it in to the truck picking up the cargo, but linking those together is very difficult. The only way to do it is through automation, but that connectivity creates a lot of risk that ports are ill-equipped to deal with. 

 

Cyber security risks aside, there is no framework for establishing accountability throughout the process. Who will be responsible for making sure what is in a container remains in that container?

 

 

Digital transformation requires all systems and sensors to be interconnected to achieve the desired business automation. The approach to interconnecting these on a shared network should use a ‘zero trust’ approach to segmenting network connectivity. 

 

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