Situational Awareness: Examining Factors that Affect Cyber-Risks in the Maritime Sector

Abstract

Standard risk assessments are used to define and prioritize threats within a sector. However, the rising number of cybersecurity risks in maritime are often temperamental to a range of environmental, technical, and social factors. A change during an incident can significantly alter the risks and, consequently, the incident outcomes. Therefore, agile, changing risk profiles are becoming more necessary in the modern world. In addition to static and dynamic, maritime operational risks can be affected by cyber, cyber-physical, or physical elements. This demonstrates the equal use of information and operational technology (IT/OT); however, most quantitative risk assessment frameworks focus on one or the other. This is not ideal, based on technological trends in the maritime sector. This article explores the factors that affect maritime cyber-risk and examines popular risk frameworks to see whether important maritime-related elements are unaccounted for. These findings are further examined with the results of a survey we conducted to assess the situational awareness of the sector around cyber-risks in maritime. Suggestions for future work on are then made based on our findings.