ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CYBERSECURITY TRAINING AND RAISING AWARENESS WITHIN THE MARITIME DOMAIN

Abstract

In recent years, the use of digital means is rapidly expanding throughout the whole world and the maritime industry is not an exception; dealing effectively with the issue of “Cyber Security” should be a high priority issue for the numerous maritime stakeholders. It is also useful to point out that the maritime sector still maintains its importance for today’s global economy: acting as the backbone of world trade, approximately 80-90% of goods and raw materials are served nowadays by the international shipping industry. Additionally, the so-called "digitalization phenomenon" is rapidly expanding in all sectors of the economy, including the maritime one; both onboard ships and in ports, Information Technology (IT) applications systems are numerous, and very often designed without taking into account the growing cyber risks. The Cyber-MAR Project is focused on hyper-realistic simulation and emulation of maritime systems (e.g. Supply Chain) and aims to create a federated Cyber Range (CR Cyber-MAR) which will include various platforms and interconnected systems onboard a ship or on land, in order to facilitate a real-time simulation of cyber-attacks and relevant malicious attempts. Cutting a long way short, CR Cyber-MAR will be an integral part of an ambitious IT security training offer, aimed at target groups with different levels of experience and technical skills available. The analysis at hand will initially deliver a literature review in relation to education and training on cybersecurity, with a very dedicated focus on the maritime domain. Then, a discussion of the position of the International Maritime Organization on the wider topic of maritime cybersecurity will be taking place. Afterward, the impact of a training session affiliated with the Project under discussion will be provided. A conclusion clearly standing out is that the vast majority of participants confirmed an improvement in their cybersecurity skills, as well as an increased level of awareness towards cyber threats.