OT Maritime Security: Stormy Waters or Smooth Sailing Ahead?

The maritime industry is navigating a sea of change when it comes to cybersecurity. The interconnected vessels and new technologies enabling the shipping world to become more efficient also introduce cyber risk. Here’s what you need to know about the challenges and risks these floating cities face — and how Tenable can help.

While most of us don’t work on large ships, all of us benefit from the role the maritime industry plays in the global goods supply chain. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) 2022 Review of Maritime Transport report, over 80% of world trade is done by sea, delivering food, energy, medicine and other essential items.

Disruptions to the supply chain, an aging shipping fleet, and poor port performance are all drivers for automation and digitization in the maritime industry. While automation and digitization increase efficiency, they also open the door to cyber risk. Cybersecurity needs to be a priority to ensure passengers, commercial ship employees and military personnel are safe when ships are at sea.

A successful cyberattack on the maritime industry could have massive regional and global consequences, such as:

• health and safety impacts
• environmental incidents
• supply chain disruptions
• reputational/brand damage
• financial losses

Who's been swimming naked?

The challenge in securing this intertwined environment is obtaining a single source of truth to understand what technology is on a ship, how it is connected and the associated risks. How do you keep track of all the assets, their firmware, and software versions on vessels that are often at sea for long periods of time, only coming into port when they get to their destination for crew changes, maintenance and unloading their cargo and passengers?

At the moment, the maritime industry typically applies Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) at the time a vessel is commissioned, but once the vessel is in use cybersecurity professionals rarely maintain ongoing visibility into existing or replaced equipment, or any modernization initiatives. Maritime engineers prioritize maintaining their ship's propulsion, steering, power and HVAC systems, however regular IT and OT maintenance of the software (patching, updating) controlling these vessels are often overlooked.

New cybersecurity requirements on the horizon

The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a United Nations agency, provides basic cybersecurity guidelines for the maritime industry. However, new requirements are looming. The International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) — a not for profit organization of classification societies headquartered in England — establishes and enforces minimum technical standards and requirements. Members of the association comply with IACS Unified Requirements (URs). IACS requirements apply to more than 90% of the world’s cargo-carrying tonnage. The organization's new requirements on cyber safety (UR E26 and E27), which aim to establish and enforce a cybersecurity baseline for all new vessels, are expected to create waves when they go into effect in January 2024. The new requirements are a major advancement for cybersecurity in maritime but, if you work in the industry, you may be wondering where you can start in order to bolster your cybersecurity practice.

How Tenable helps cybersecurity professionals working in the maritime industry

Tenable has worked with several maritime customers by offering a comprehensive suite of security tools called Tenable OT Security (formerly Tenable.ot), designed to help IT and OT security personnel. Cybersecurity professionals in the maritime industry gain unmatched visibility across IT/OT operations and awareness across all assets on connected vessels — from Windows servers to programmable logic controller (PLC) backplanes — in a single interface. Tenable provides complete visibility into your entire attack surface and helps users measure and control cyber risk across OT and IT systems.

Tenable OT Security for critical infrastructure networks provides:

• In-depth asset visibility: Tenable OT Security provides visibility of specialized OT and traditional IT devices for a centralized view of the attack surface.
• Vulnerability management: Tenable OT Security’s vulnerability assessment capabilities help identify and mitigate security “soft spots” within a vessel's OT systems, networks, and applications.
• Threat and anomaly detection: Tenable OT Security continuously monitors manufacturing environments for threats and anomalous activity, providing early warning of potential cybersecurity incidents.
• Device configuration monitoring: Tenable OT Security keeps track of device configuration, firmware and software versions, complete ladder logic, diagnostic buffer and tag structure — with a full history of controller versioning and ongoing activities and behavior — in real-time.

Learn More

• View the webinar: Navigating Maritime Cybersecurity: Regulations and Best Practices, featuring maritime expert Wärtsilä, a Tenable customer
• Read the case study: Wärtsilä Gives Customers OT Visibility to Protect Critical Infrastructures with Tenable OT Security
• Read the Wärtsilä press release: Why is a robust Operational Technology security strategy a very good idea?
• Read the LinkedIn post from Wärtsilä: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7065265500267651072?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop