As shipping moves towards innovations such as autonomous vessels the US Coast Guard (USCG) warns that the industry needs to take cyber security seriously to avoid regulation.
In the keynote at the Safety@Sea conference in Singapore, Rear Admiral John P. Nadeau from the USCG, spoke about the impact technology was having on the shipping industry and said he believed autonomous ships were not that far off.
However, Adm Nadeau also warned: “They do also have some risks and vulnerabilities we need to think about. The obvious ones are hacking, ransomware, malware, incompatibilities, and GPS interruptions for whatever reason.”
With a lot of discussions following recent cyber attacks, such as the NotPetya virus that hit Maersk Line and others, this brought the question as whether the industry was taking the cyber security issue seriously enough.
“And I ask myself are we as an industry taking these risks seriously and making sure we understand them and mitigate them, before something big enough happens before a government or a regulator steps in and mandates certain things,” he said.
Rather than the rules mandated by governments or regulators, which Adm Nadeau said “was never the best way to achieve safety”, action needed to come from the industry such as the 250 executives in the audience.
While the are currently no indications cyber intrusion was invovled in the collision on Monday between the US warship John S. McCain and the tanker Alnic MC in the Singapore Strait US Navy Adm John Richardson said on Twitter that it was not being ruled out and the “review will consider all possibilities”.
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Source: Seatrade Maritime
