According to Ken Munro, a security researcher with Pen Test Partners, gaining access to the network of a ship is in most cases “a low-skill attack.” As Munro explains: “[P]assword security and patch management are so poor at sea that compromise does not require significant expertise.”
This is very worrisome, because a cyber attack on a vessel can have devastating consequences, as it may enable attackers to do just about anything that the ship’s control systems allow. Munro warns that “[i]f one was suitably motivated, perhaps by a nation-state or a crime syndicate, one could bring about the sinking of a ship.”
Read more: Researcher: Not Hard for a Hacker to Capsize a Ship at Sea
