# Cybersecurity Challenges in the Maritime Sector
## 5 Security and Safety Countermeasures  
Modern and autonomous ships have become ripe targets for high-profile cyberattacks due to the increasing usage of digital technologies. Therefore, several countermeasures and in-depth defence strategies should be adopted in order to build resilience to external and internal security threats [65, 66]. The first is to create a continuous monitoring system that can \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l} \hline \hline
**Year** & **Incident** & **Consequences** \\ \hline
2016 & GPS jamming attack in South Korea [54] & 280 vessels were affected \\
2017 & Cyberattack against the navigation system [54] & Hijack of the vessel for 10 h \\
2017 & Cyberattack against the navigation system [53] & U.S. Navy ship collided with a boat \\
2018 & GPS spoofing attack against ships in the Black Sea [51] & Deviation of 20 ships to an airport \\
2018 & Remotely compromising onboard computers [57] & Stealing sensitive data \\
2018 & GPS spoofing attack [33] & Manipulation of the ship position \\
2018 & NotPetya malware attack [62] & Affected shipping infrastructures \\
2018 & ECDIS was infected by a virus [60] & Delay in the ship sailing \\
2019 & Malware attack targeted a U.S. vessel [56] & Critical credential mining \\
2020 & Ransomware Hermes 2.1. attack on 2 ships [33] & Infection of the whole network \\
2020 & Ransomware attack “Mespinoza/Pysa” [33, 61] & Maritime infrastructures infected \\
2021 & Ransomware attack on shipping companies [58] & All their files were encrypted \\
2022 & Installation of malicious code [57] & Gain access to the port network \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Examples of recent cyber incidents in the maritime transport sector. provide real-time situation awareness of the ship's security health status [65; 67; 68]. In this context, blockchain technology has been proposed to improve autonomous vessels' control security in many studies [65; 69; 70; 71]. The main feature of blockchain technology, including traceability, transparency, auditability, immutability, and decentralisation, is proposed to enable secure communication and secure storage of the data exchanged between vessels and the shore control centre. The utilisation of this technology will eliminate some critical security threats for ship communication, such as losing data, data changing by malicious actors, or data hijacking [71]. According to [70], blockchain technology will play a major role in identification and certification, ensuring data integrity and information security in the future of the maritime industry and autonomous vessels. Since all ship systems are interconnected, only one compromised system can allow attacks to access all other systems, from the water treatment system to the engine management system. Therefore, the design of the IT and OT systems themselves can be a valuable asset to defend from certain attacks as well [65]. According to [72], one mechanism that could increase navigational safety is the Navigation Message Authentication (NMA) system, which is designed to prevent spoofing and to provide increased safety. An NMA scheme would include authentication messages in the navigation message stream, authenticating the source, while also protecting the navigation data's cryptographic integrity [73]. The receiver can detect intruders trying to generate or modify navigation data. An attacker cannot simulate an authentication message because he/she does not have the key required to generate the authentication message. Considering the dangers of the ECDIS failure, the IMO outlined the need for backup arrangements on board vessels. Because these backups do not provide the full functionality of ECDIS, they should be used in conjunction with current paper charts. Many reputable shipping companies choose to install a second ECDIS on board to reduce the risk of ECDIS failure [74]. Given the vast amounts of data that ships tend to generate, efficient authentication and access control mechanisms would be preferable in most circumstances [65; 67; 68].