Shipping sector security awareness ‘low to non-existent’

ENISA urges EU member states to improve security awareness in the maritime sector.

By Tom Brewster, 21 Dec 2011 at 10:24

The European maritime sector has next to no idea about cyber security, according to a report released by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).

The shipping industry, which carried 52 per cent of goods traffic in 2010, has “currently low to non-existent” awareness of cyber security needs and challenges, the report said.

ENISA claimed the lack of understanding was evident at every layer of the industry, from government bodies to port authorities and maritime companies.

“This overall low awareness represents a concern as there is an increased dependency on ICT of all key players, processes and activities within the maritime sector,” the report continued.

“Indicators of this dependency are the increasing number of ICT systems implementations in ports worldwide, and the continuous increase of volume and complexity of information and data exchanged.”

ENISA considered the maritime sector to be..….[Click here to continue reading]