The average commercial ship is using 3X more data than before COVID, Inmarsat estimates.
“The result is a growing ship network ‘surface area’ for attacks that offers a route to onboard control systems. Cyber threats are also fast-evolving, as cybercriminals develop malicious codes to probe for new weaknesses. Successful attacks threaten vessel safety, disrupt services and expose sensitive information. They also bring the costs of extortion, recovery, and higher insurance.”
The report does not provide details on the connection between the maritime cyber threat and the cyber insurance market. But given the complexity of legal and regulatory controls for ships at sea, along with their flagging by nations outside the owners’ main centers of operation, maritime promises complex cyber insurance and legal issues.
Note the allusions to “SCADA” risk on these ships, which if not mitigated could in theory allow hackers to damage them, their cargoes and the environment — or even turn the vessels into weapons.
Source: Inmarsat combats rising maritime cybercrime with Fleet Secure Unified Threat Management