Ships are an easy target for cybercriminals, and that is bad
It seems obvious that if banks, factories and retail shops can be hacked, boats and ports can be hacked too.
The real question is: why doesn’t it happen more often? For a long time, ships were relatively safe because they were not connected to the internet. The infrastructure on board was not even suitable for connecting to computers. That has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. A complex mix of OT and IT have been developed and deployed aboard ships. Especially the conventional OT systems have been built with fairly open and unencrypted systems, sometimes decades old, looks like an open invitation to hackers. The result: marine cybercrime is steeply on the rise.
In this presentation, we’ll show you some scenarios with huge consequences and how hackers can get into ships. We’ll also tell you how we could build more resilience in our sector, in ships and ports.
