First-of-its-kind cyber centre

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved an agreement with IBM to design and operate a cyber resilience centre (CRC) at the Port of Los Angeles that has a pioneering warning system designed to detect and protect against cyber incidents potentially impacting cargo flow.

“As our port increasingly relies on data integration to guide its cargo operations and processes, detection and protection against cyber incidents is critical,” said port executive director, Gene Seroka.

“This new cyber resilience centre will not only provide the port an early warning system against port-wide cyber attacks, but result in greater collective knowledge and data sharing throughout our entire port supply chain ecosystem.”

Port authorities are becoming increasingly concerned about cyber attacks such as the one that targeted Iranian ports recently and another directed at the French CMA CGM Group. In 2014, the port established the nation’s first cyber security operations centre, manned by a dedicated team.

Currently, companies and stakeholders at the port monitor and respond to cyber threats individually. The CRC will serve as a ‘system of systems’ and focal point across all stakeholders enabling participants such as tenants and cargo handlers to quickly share threat indicators and better coordinate a response.

The US$6.8 million, three-year agreement with IBM includes hardware, software and services to design, install, operate and maintain the CRC.