Maritime Cybersecurity: Threats & Regulations Loom
This review summarizes the key insights shared during the webinar held on April 9th, which featured maritime cybersecurity experts discussing the growing challenges facing ports, logistics operations, and global supply chains.
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The maritime industry is a large, complex ecosystem of carriers and port operators, with various pieces of information and operational technologies. Securing these systems is challenging but critical, as ports are at the center of the country’s supply chain.
During the Maritime Cybersecurity: Risks and Best Practices webinar on April 9, experts discussed existing challenges and where stakeholders can focus on securing the supply chain and their maritime security infrastructure.
Israel’s former Director General of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, Yigal Unna, speaks with Senior Director of Cybersecurity Services at Venable, Caitlin Clarke, about his experience securing ports. Unlike other markets, the maritime industry hasn’t had much guidance or regulations around cybersecurity. As systems have become more interconnected and attack surfaces have expanded, this has the potential to lead to problems at ports for carriers and operators.
There is a pressing need for increased collaboration between public and private partnerships to enhance system security, identify threats, and effectively mitigate risks. While smaller regional maritime groups are already collaborating, establishing larger, more comprehensive coalitions is essential. “We’re all using similar technology and all facing similar risks,” Unna says. “We need best practices from other sectors and need to apply them to maritime. We need public/private partnerships and to raise awareness with the government and academia. People need to recognize these threats, or we will be stuck without medicine and other critical supplies.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released in February and Director of the Homeland Security and Justice Team at GAO, Tina Won Sherman, gave an overview of that report.
The threat landscape to the maritime industry is expanding as the threat actors increase. Vulnerabilities are expanding as more technology is relied upon, and the potential impact of an attack could be severe, as past incidents have shown. Cyber incident reporting has been piecemeal, and there have not been processes in place to make sure the information collected was complete and accurate as everything has been voluntary.
This is all about to change as and will impact ports and other facilities. The Coast Guard wants to help ports and others meet the requirements, but it is also hampered by resourcing challenges. According to Won Sherman, it has a 15% vacancy in its cybersecurity roles and challenges, competing with the private sector for personnel.
Won Sherman also adds that the maritime industry will need to invest more in cybersecurity to meet the new rules that go into effect this summer and bring robust cybersecurity to the industry.
The last panel of the session includes stakeholders from a port association, a port operator, and a former city CISO.
This discussion highlights that the threat landscape the maritime industry is facing is not that different than other enterprises. IT Program Manager at the Port of South Louisiana, Milton Corney, notes that phishing and social engineering attacks leading to malware are a top concern. His top requests include cyber hygiene training, governance frameworks, and policies to help prevent individuals from clicking on those email links.
Operations and Legislative Associate at the American Association of Port Authorities, Holden Haley, says this group sees attackers getting access to systems and then lying in wait to see how they can escalate privileges and access different systems.
Knowing what threats are out there and how to respond is also critical for ports, says Maritime Lead at live casino online, Nir Daliot, “Without information sharing, you can’t do a whole lot.”
With new regulations on the horizon, ports and others need funding for modern technologies and resources. Daliot says the BIRD Foundation, an Israel-U.S. research and development foundation, is developing tools to help the maritime industry secure systems. He talks about how Trend and Israeli cybersecurity company Rescana have leveraged the BIRD Foundation's support to develop Maritime One, a solution focused on lowering the risks to ports and maritime industry infrastructure owners and operators.
Haley adds that funding is critical to move forward in meeting these regulations. The future of grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is in question, and panelists hope they will be renewed.
Poor cyber hygiene can impact ports. Corney adds that cyber insurance premiums could be higher, or a port could be dropped if it does not meet basic measures.
Haley says ports could also lose business if they suffer an attack. Carriers have options regarding which ports they work with, and if an attack happens, that carrier may take their business elsewhere, so cybersecurity could be a business differentiator, he adds.
With the new regulations coming quickly, Daliot says that port operators should start with the basics. They should look at general cyber hygiene and patch systems, test them, evaluate them, and iterate. Corney concludes by saying that vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and tabletop exercises are also good steps to take.