PRESS RELEASE
The COVID-19 outbreak has been a huge challenge for the foundations of our lives, societies and economies,
testing their future. Organizations across industries have been adapted to new ways of working, focusing on
their employees’ well-being and ensuring that all operations continue undisrupted. Inevitably, under these
circumstances, some aspects of the daily operations such as cybersecurity may be in danger, whilst increasing
the risk of cybersecurity attacks.
This situation constitutes an inviting opportunity for the cyber attackers to make their way into corporate
networks because either the various malicious methods they use, are rapidly adapted to the changing
circumstances that many organizations find themselves in or the organizations themselves may not have as
robust defenses for their remote workers as they do in office environments.
The Shipping industry is a high-risk domain in cyber-attacks. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the shipping
organizations have been investigating to implement IMO’s “Guidelines on maritime cyber risk management”,
in order to raise the preparedness and awareness level against cyber security threats. Priorities should be
reevaluated after the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to mitigate the emerging risks. The arising and the already
developed technologies can be seen as a great opportunity against cyberattacks in the maritime domain.
The technological developments within Cyber-MAR project can play –among others- critical role in securing the
newly introduced remote working conditions, ensuring the continuity of critical security functions, minimizing
disruption potential and finally identifying opportunistic threats that may take advantage of the current
situation.
Within Cyber-MAR project, a platform, which aims to act not only as a knowledge base but also as a decision
support tool to cybersecurity measures, is currently being developed. Moreover, the cyber-threat awareness
level is being promoted through cost-efficient training solutions covering the maritime logistics value chain.
The full text of the press release can be found here.