More than half of Danish shipping companies hit by cyber-crime

More than half of Danish shipping companies hit by cyber-crime
Grace Johansson January 16, 2018 https://www.scmagazineuk.com/more-than-half-of-danish-shipping-companies...

A survey by the shipping association of the CEO panel comprising of 26 senior executives revealed that the majority of Danish shipping companies - 69 percent - had been hit by cyber-crime according to a report in SMN.

A survey by the shipping association of the CEO panel comprising of 26 senior executives revealed that the majority of Danish shipping companies - 69 percent - had been hit by cyber-crime according to a report in Seatrade Maritime News (SMN).

Consequently 69 percent of Danish shipowners have increased their IT budgets this year - an exact correlation with those who have been hit.

Mike Loginov CISO at Powel AS Norway, and president of IOTSA told SC Media UK that in the United States alone, the US$ 700 billion (£509 billion) shipping industry is expected to be valued at US$ 1.3 trillion (£900 billion) by 2023, and with the level of growth it's hardly a surprise that the shipping industry is of interest to the adversarial community.

He went on tell SC that “it also depends on which adversarial lens we focus on. If, for example, we consider the scenarios from a cyber-warfare perspective, the capability to seriously distrust the global supply and logistics chain makes cyber-attacks on shipping a strategic and attractive attack vector from a national defence position.

He adds: “As older ships with legacy technologies are replaced or refitted with modern interconnected capabilities they potentially become more vulnerable to direct cyber-attacks. Shipping companies should take the lessons learned to date very seriously to ensure that the risk is appropriately managed and mitigated. The integration of IT and OT systems through the growth of IoT use in the shipping and logistics world remains fertile ground for the inquisitive hacker and nation state players alike. Unless the industry takes serious steps to bolster its cyber-defence then the disruption the Danish shipping sector has experienced is likely to become much more prevalent as tensions between nations increases.”