From waves and storms to hackers: The modern nightmare for sailors is now cyberattacks at sea, which threaten the safety of ships and crew.
In the past, when we talked about danger at sea, we meant bad weather, a mechanical failure, fire, collision, piracy, or a human error. Today, something new is added to all these, something that is not visible to the naked eye: “hacking” or in Greek, a cyberattack.
A ship can have all its systems in good working order, but a few “clicks” from a third party are enough to send a false signal to the GPS, to make the AIS go crazy, to turn off the alarms, or to block the ECDIS. And then, the problem is neither the storm nor some mechanical failure, but it will be something we never expected the time would come to face.
I happened to live through such an experience. The ECDIS started showing everyone that it was in a completely different location from where it actually was. It was eventually proven that “something” had entered the system. It wasn’t easy to understand it immediately and it took time to fix it.
The difficulty is not only in the technical part. It is also the psychological pressure that exists at that moment. When the crew sees things that don’t make sense, the stress grows.
At sea, such incidents can happen in various ways. Sometimes by altering the position so the ship appears in a different location. Other times with USB sticks infected by viruses that someone brings without realizing it. There are also simpler traps: an email that looks normal but as soon as you open it, it infects the ship’s network. Or even interference that cuts communication with satellite systems.
Let’s not forget that during the military conflict between Israel and Iran, the GPS signal went crazy, resulting in accidents and causing great disruption to the naval and shipping world.
This is what I, as a captain, tell the young guys and the bridge officers. “We must always be prepared for the worst.” There must be familiarity with traditional navigation, and ocean sailing but also coastal sailing.
We don’t need to be afraid or panicked. However, vigilance and special attention to what we do are needed. We should not put unknown USB sticks into the ECDIS, we should be careful with emails, and have a backup plan in case the signal is lost; these are a few things that are enough to save us from big troubles.
And above all, the crew must be informed. Not with difficult technical words, but with simple instructions that everyone can understand.
The sea has always had threats. Once it was pirates, then it was storms and breakdowns. Now it is digital attacks. The sailor learned to live with all of them. The same will happen now, as long as we are careful and take nothing for granted.
We must adapt to the new reality because as digital technology becomes firmly established on ships, the risks for cyberattacks will increase. It is the challenge of the future and of the present…
