The Use of Cyber Ranges in the Maritime Context

Abstract

<jats:p>A good defensive strategy against evolving cyber threats and cybercrimes is to raise awareness and use that awareness to prepare technical mitigation and human defence strategies. A prime way to do this is through training. While there are already many sectors employing this strategy (e.g., space, smart buildings, business IT) maritime has yet to take advantage of the available cyber-range technology to assess cyber-risks and create appropriate training to meet those risks. Cyber security training can come in two forms, the first is so security professionals can raise their awareness on the latest and most urgent issues and increase defence skill levels. The second form is directed at non-security professionals (e.g., ship builders, crew) and the general public, who are just as affected by cyber threats but may not have the necessary security background to deal with the issues. Conducting training programmes for both requires dedicated computing infrastructure to simulate and execute effective scenarios for both sets of trainees. To this end, a cyber range (CR) provides an environment for just that. The purpose of this paper is to use studies on the concept of cyber ranges to provide evidence on why the maritime sector should embrace this technology for maritime-cyber training, and envision how they will provide maritime training and risk assessment to combat tomorrow’s threats.</jats:p>

Literature review on maritime cybersecurity: state-of-the-art

“…Converselly, the seafarers' lack of competence and system awareness will present risk factors rather than risk reductions (Heering et al, 2020). The holistic framework to increase cybersecurity awareness and competence of seafarers includes theoretical education and practical training, and demonstrations and experiments, as well as assistance procedure development of identifying and dealing with cyber threats (Becmeur et al, 2017;Zăgan et al, 2018;Lovell and Heering, 2019;Tam et al, 2021b). The cross-sector capacities in the overlapping domains of automation, digital system, robotic, artificial intelligence, cyber, maritime shipping and navigation are the skills requirements for intelligent maritime shipping (Harris, 2021).…”

The potential mental health effects of remote control in an autonomous maritime world

“…A critical element in current simulation technologies, in maritime and aviation, is high-fidelity so trainers receive accurate mariner and pilot training (Liu et al 2020;Myers III, Starr, and Mullins 2018;Tam, Moara-Nkwe, and Jones 2020). Although costly, the benefits seem clear when preparing trainees for real environment, as highlighted in (Winn et al 2006) students learning oceanography using field experience, even with little prior understanding could learn quickly.…”

“…Understanding the security of a remote access environment from is critical for preventing both attacks and high-stress stress during an attack, whether or not it is successful. Maritime-cyber is a relatively new field and may need new facilities for researching (Tam and Jones 2019a) and training (Tam, Moara-Nkwe, and Jones 2020). Similar to the issue of training for an autonomous age, a survey in (Tam and Jones 2019c) found that 70% participants have not had any training cyber security, but 75% thought that addition cyber safety training would be useful for their tasks.…”

Cyber Security in the Maritime Industry: A Systematic Survey of Recent Advances and Future Trends

“…The reliance on the Internet, operating with unprotected computers, and the fact that crews do not receive appropriate security training increase further the probability of a successful cyber breach. There is clear evidence that the absence of structured security awareness training for employees across the supply chain is a major source of vulnerabilities; as a result, hackers can use classical approaches such as spam emails or Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks to achieve successful breaches [10,11]. A security plan providing recommendations to protect the maritime supply chain and a co-coordinated strategy with international marine organizations is a near-term necessity [12].…”