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EU Shipping Sector Cyber Security Awareness "Non-Existent"
twoheadedboy writes "The European maritime sector has next to no idea about cyber security, according to a report released by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The shipping industry, which carried 52 per cent of goods traffic in Europe in 2010, has 'currently low to non-existent' awareness of cyber security needs and challenges, the report said. ENISA claimed the lack of understanding was evident at every layer of the industry, from government bodies to port authorities and maritime companies."
Is it that they didn't know, or that they didn't really care?
After having read the full report in question it becomes somewhat clearer, they didn't just fill out forms, they interviewed people and held workshops with the key players.
To quote the report:
"awareness regarding cyber security aspects is either at a very low level or even non-existent in the maritime sector, this observation being applicable at all layers, including government bodies, port authorities and maritime companies.".
My understanding is that this report is focused on what governments and the EU specifically can do to help, build and support for better security. In recent years the EU and other bodies have created and implemented security related regulation including provisions relating to safety and physical security concepts.
Now, it's time to look at what the EU and its members should and can do to secure related information systems. Self-regulatory and co-regulatory organisational models around maritime cyber security aspects are virtually non-existent within the EU Member States, according to the report (page 19).
Do you have any actual experience or knowledge of European governments in this area? This doesn't seem like an accurate description of how things are done in my part of Europe at least. Are you American, European or something else?
I find it hard to believe the fact that you claim to know this is how it actually works, especially in all of the 27 different EU member countries. Never mind the 50 countries of Europe. Somehow I doubt you know them all.
The report however is specifically focused on creating frameworks for all of the nations involved in cooperation with the industry.
It is more a lack of incentive.I work in assenger and air cargo, and rankly, most of our system are so old that it is hard to justify *any* security measure. Even if you were an uberloot hacker and even if you could do injection, there is too many check and balance in the code to go very far without tripping half a dozen red light (which are there to avoid COSTLY rerouting, not against hacker). As for getting root, I am not sure it is remotely useful as most of those system use abstruse system which are not even modfiable from the CLI environement, only from the TIP even for us system program, so I doubt a rooting guy could do anything. Actually I sometime wish the possibility was there would be easier to patch things up.
And that's not even counting the XRAY scanner on the package and the other security measure from the cargo having nothing to do with the system itself.
In such circumstance there is no way whatsoever to suggest security. when there is no money gain in it. I betcha a lot of shop are using similar old cargo system.
We're talking about larger issues such as preventing whole tankers filled with toxic materials, oil or gas from becoming terrorist targets/weapons. They're not focused on consumer data protection in this report.
We've recently improved our physical port security, now we need to think about securing the information infrastructure to prevent attacks that could result in massive economic [disruption] and environmental damage.
That's your contribution? The EU is a supra-national government, it is capable of handling any number of issues concurrently, like any other government. That's what all those employees are for. What you are "suggesting" is plainly absurd. What do you imagine the people working on food safety or road maintenance can do to fix a sovereign debt crisis? Maybe your government is incapable of working on more than one issue at the time?
The Greeks work a lot more than that, you sure are full of vitriol, where do you get your information? Comical Ali?
If you're from Japan I would say you have your own fair share of problems including national debts, currency problems, falling competitiveness and aging population. That sounds very much like the problems of the countries you scoffed at.
I don't see how that is in conflict with what I said? That's probably not your point either? I think your point is exactly why the EU is pushing for more regulation and cooperation.
Yeah, who ever needed words like "is", "of", and "the" anyway?
Sorry, that's just anecdotal "evidence" from one country. It proves nothing in general European terms of specifically for Germany.
Yeah, that shows how little you know, fail to understand Europe and Europeans in general.
Actually I'm from a wealthy non-EU, Northern European country, one with low unemployment, no currency problems, no net national debt and a booming economy. The Eurozone crisis is not ours, and it has had no impact here. I do however work with clients in the EU, I know Europe quite well, and I don't approve of misinformation and lies.
The Greeks screwed themselves, with help from large international banks, and now everyone's paying for it. Their work ethic has little to do with it, most of them work(ed) very hard every day, for much longer than you or I. On the other hand there were/are public employees with too many benefits and great pensions. The issue was overspending, not underworking. Covering it up made it Europe's problem.
It did sort of miss the point :)
I'm referring to statistics from my government, the OECD and IMF (2008-2011).
Fortunately for us we have the cash to ward off the ill effects of the global downturn. Our internal economy is pretty insular and a lot of people work for state owned industries/public offices. Our banks were already well regulated because of a past housing boom and bust. So no collapsing banks or housing market here.
Our currency is solid and gaining due to the general European insecurity. Exports are getting more expensive of course. Our unemployment is the lowest in Europe (3%). Money is flowing from other countries to our currency, banks and stocks as a "safe harbor". We're rated AAA as a country.
The EU is a major trading partner, but we also trade on the global commodities market. Oil and gas hasn't collapsed. We are one of the EU's largest energy suppliers (oil, gas, electricity). There is an interdependency there, but we can always sell our resources elsewhere.
The EU recently asked us for help, due to our cash reserves, and we decided to give a few billion dollars to the IMF. It's in our interest that the EU stabilizes, but it's not our currency or banks. How badly it will affect us is yet to be seen, we've noticed very little here as of yet. We'll just have to wait and see.
Security is taken seriously only when threats start happening in practice, not just in theory. And for all the lack of security nothing has really happened so far. When and if ships start sinking and blowing because of viruses, security will be improved, but not until then. Same reason why people in India don't have winter coats just in case the temperatures drop to zero - which they did, once (and a lot of people died then).
And ultimately, if it's so easy to do mischief, then why has nothing happened in practice so far?
AFAIK it stopped in Finland to load few pieces of chain. Stopping in Finland if you are on the way from Germany to China makes very little sense (it's in the opposite direction), so maybe the whole stop was just to camouflage the ship's original route. However the ship got into a storm, called pilot for help and ended up being inspected.
It was found out that the freight was not correctly secured and had been thrown around during the storm. There was also some problems with ship's freight bill. 69 Patriot missiles were found that were not mentioned.
When questioned about the whole mess the shipping company said that the missiles were "probably loaded in by accident".
My guess is that these missiles were German second hand PAC-2s that have been legally sold to South-Korea. Why were they smuggling them? No idea.