Investigation and analysis of cyber security challenges in the maritime domain and commercial ships

Cyber attacks have been increasing rapidly over the years, sometimes resulting in large financial losses for businesses, recoveries, regulatory sanctions, as well as collateral damage, such as reputation and trust. In this regard, the maritime sector, which until now was considered safe due to the lack of internet connectivity and the isolated nature of ships at sea, is witnessing a 900% increase in cyber security breaches in operational technology as we enter the digital age. Although some research is being done in this area, maritime cyber security has not been explored in depth. Hence, this research scrutinizes the cyber security landscape in the maritime sector with the aim of highlighting security problems and challenges. Then, it describes and analyzes possible mitigation measures that can be used in advance to prevent such attacks. Finally, several challenges and open problems for future research are discussed.

The research aims to investigate and analyze the challenges of cyber security in the marine and commercial ships in a descriptive-analytical way.

IT and OT systems in modern ships should be prepared with more advanced security measures due to their high vulnerability to cyber threats. In this article, we discuss some possible countermeasures that could reduce potential cyberattacks and make the transportation industry a tough target, such as implementing a new security standard that would reduce the number and scope of cyberattacks. put. However, many security challenges remain unsolved, especially with the increasing use of autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels.