I know, I know \u2026 it\u2019s all easier said than done, but those who don\u2019t keep up are almost guaranteed to be left on the beach looking at changing trades flows sailing to competing ports, or regions.<\/p>\n
A session on cybersecurity at a recent shipping conference that I attended has great implications for ports. The same group thinking and problem solving that I\u2019ve espoused for dealing with certain regulatory initiatives – think about container weighing – can also be applied to cyber incidents.<\/p>\n
In a networked world where systems are linked up, the impacts of a cyber incident might reach way beyond one particular system. One panelist at the meeting that I attended talked about security having its own eco-system, telling the audience of several hundred shipping executives: \u201cIt goes beyond your own company\u2026 you need to look at vendors and customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the case of ports, port and terminal information systems are now linked up with those of trucking companies, shipping lines and intermediaries. And even the port business will be profoundly impacted by the next wave through the Internet of Things, where many mechanical devices will be tied together through intranets.<\/p>\n
Unlike static RFID tags, which can be polled, the next generation of sensors and the like are programmed to talk to other equipment. So the potential for a cyber incident – which might be malicious, but might also be the result of a human error – looms large with the consequence of slowing down or shutting off cargo throughput.<\/p>\n
In the shipping context, one panelist said: \u201cIt\u2019s not that different from what we\u2019ve done in managing other risk\u201d; here, oil spill management comes to mind. Another speaker recommended entering into retainer agreements with cyber specialists so they could quickly be mobilised in the wake of an incident.<\/p>\n
Other panelists suggested \u2018table top exercises\u2019 to simulate cyber-catastrophes; again, not dissimilar to the emergency preparedness drills that ports and shipping companies regularly engage in. It\u2019s not that much of a stretch to include cyber incidents into such drills; computer \u2018glitches\u2019 increasingly have the potential to quickly and unpredictably immobilise flows of cargo. If that\u2019s not an emergency to be prepared for, I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COMMENT: One theme running through New Yorker opinion pieces is the need for ports to break out of silos to acknowledge the greater good of a particular port, writes Barry Parker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-9742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-new-yorker"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9744,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9742\/revisions\/9744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9742"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=9742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}