After the hacking of ships, those of the IT systems of maritime and port players. They are multiplying and are more and more sophisticated. The intended goals: image damage, financial fraud, data theft, sabotage.
It is by hackers who were working for a drug cartel that the port of Antwerp was attacked, in 2011. Access to the container management system allowed them to recover the boxes that contained the fraudulent goods. More recently, last May, an attack sabotaged the flow of ships, trucks and containers in an Iranian port. Any port suffers several hundred attacks per week. Shipowners are also affected, as CMA CGM in September, with ransom demand.
A threat dreaded. Ransom costs increased from $ 325 million to $ 11.5 billion between 2015 and 2019 and are estimated to be $ 20 billion in 2021
, according to Jérôme Lees, of the insurance firm Gras Savoye Dero.Because the ports are
open environments, recalls Jérôme Besancenot, responsible for the development of information systems at the port of Le Havre. All players, most often VSEs and SMEs, are interconnected to share information, in increasingly dematerialized procedures
. Soget, which manages port data on the Seine axis on the S) One platform processes 190 million messages per year
, according to its director Hervé Cornède. And the challenge is great: more than 80% of world trade passes by sea.
“Cybersecurity is seen as a constraint”
Little by little, the State became aware of the importance for the national economy of having safe ports, notes Jérôme Besancenot. It has defined a strategy under the leadership of the National Information Systems Security Agency (Anssi), to take more account of the cyber threat, just like airports.
The answer is notably legislative. Thus, since 2014, the military programming law obliges operators of vital interest (OIV) to better protect their sensitive information systems. In 2018, the European Network & Information Security (NIS) directive extended the scope to operators of essential services (OSE), including the maritime sector.
It’s a total change of culture for an international trading port that relies on exchange, recognizes Jérôme Besancenot. Cybersecurity is seen as a constraint, controls as obstacles to the rapid passage of goods.
Hence the need to become proactive. Today, we have to put ourselves in the head of a cyber attacker, with the will to be evil.
Or, 66% of cyber attacks are due to employee negligence
, according to Jérôme Lees.
Then Haropa-port of Le Havre mobilized. Backed by ISO 28,000 certification in 2010 for its logistics security management, in 2019 it created a port, maritime and industrial cybersecurity platform. It is integrated into the program « Le Havre smart port city », winner of the Great Ambition Innovation Territory call for projects of the Investments for the Future program (Tiga PIA3).
Industrial agreement
Goal : Boost an ecosystem in a collaborative approach that involves all stakeholders in the port area, to develop a culture of risk and create a virtuous circle
. The port thus works with shipowners, manufacturers, academics and has signed an industrial agreement with Soget, the Union maritime et portuaire du Havre and the aeronautical giant Airbus. Crash tests are carried out on different scenarios with their experts, to develop high-performance solutions, a methodology, and best practices. Next step: to propose a reproducible model on the other ports. The key is to harmonize processes, pool services in terms of awareness, training, audits and risk management.
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