Commercial Maritime and Cyber Risk Management

Abstract

The starting point of the paper is the recognition of the growing threat of cyber-attacks to commercial maritime. Constantly growing dependency on technology has obvious advantages, on the other hand, however, it makes commercial maritime vessels progressively more vulnerable to cyber-crime, including GPS signal interference, malware attacks or even gaining control over ships’ systems and networks. The main objective of the paper is to present and discuss the Guidelines on Cyber Security Onboard Ships developed by the International Maritime Organization, including best practices for implementation of cyber risk management. The article’s goal is to summarize the guidelines and to familiarize the reader with the reasons why and the methods how they should be implemented. The paper is concluded with an example how the Guidelines can be adopted by national authorities, i.e., a brief presentation of “Code of Practice: Cyber Security for Ships” – a document developed by the British government that transposes the IMO guidelines.