Unite, Prepare and Enable Maritime Cyber Readiness

The maritime transport industry, the backbone of global trade, is at a pivot point amid shifts in economic, political, and technological conditions. Advances in technology have entered the industry, thereby improving efficiency and enabling innovative solutions for various onboard operations, including remote cargo monitoring, advanced energy management systems, and overall automation.
Digitization via interconnected IT/OT systems, however, expands attack surfaces, opening the door to increasingly sophisticated adversaries and cybercriminals determined to breach them for financial gain or disruption. Both ports and ships are experiencing an increase in malware, phishing, ransomware, GPS spoofing and social engineering designed to disrupt operations, steal data, or hold systems hostage.

• In 2024, the Port of Seattle was attacked by the ransomware group Rhysida. The criminals encrypted data, resulting in widespread, sustained outages across multiple systems that affected check-in kiosks, baggage systems, and Wi-Fi.

• In 2023, the Port of Nagoya, Japan, was subject to a ransomware attack by LockBit, a notorious Russia-based cybercriminal group. Container terminal operations were crippled for more than two days. Trade was disrupted, affecting major companies like Toyota, and highlighting critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, following an earlier DDoS attack in 2022.

• From 2011 through 2017, Port of Antwerp, Belgium, was exposed to drug cartels