Maritime Cyber Security Seminar

On Friday September 20 the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, the Nederlandse Zeebevrachters Sociëteit en the Rotterdam Maritime Services Industry shared their vision on cyber security in the maritime industry during a well attended joint seminar.

The line-up consisted of cyber security expert Eric Thorr Klopper of Armada Marine, Jeroen van der Veer of DNV-GL Maritime and Reinier Jansen of DUPI. The seminar, hosted by AKD in Rotterdam, provided the audience with interesting insights. Unfortunately Eric Thorr Klopper could not attend in person due to a last minute business trip to South Africa. However he was able to deliver his views via a Skype connection.

The main take away was that there is no clear documented standard to which shipowners have to comply. Current IMO rules are too generic, posing a possible risk, especially with new threats on ‘older’ equipment.

The solution according to Eric Klopper, might be to create a universally accepted certification process. After Jeroen van der Veer, of DNV-GL agreed with this proposal he continued to explain new forms of piracy. This doesn’t include entering or hijacking physically, but virtually. Safety these days highly depend on cyber systems. It is well known that hackers are sometimes able to hack into these systems posing a substantial risk. Cyber Resilience is necessary to stay on top. DNV-GL developed an approach to identify gaps and bring the three elements for resilience closer; People, Process and Technology. All three are equally important.

Last speaker of the program was Reinier Jansen of DUPI. Raising the question on who would be held responsible if a ship is used as a weapon. He stated that the P&I Clubs will expect to see proper managed cyber risk procedures and systems in place. Both ashore and on vessels. He focused on the BIMCO Guidelines on Cyber Security and finished before it was time for the drinks with the great view on the river Maas from the AKD building.