Maritime cyber risk rises with aging fleets

Stephenson Harwood’s Maritime & Offshore team hosted a Shipping News breakfast this week on the fast‑evolving maritime cybersecurity threat landscape, chaired by Ezio Dal Maso and featuring experts Dan Humphreys from ABS Group, Rod Johnson from Seamark and V.Group’s John Sullivan. Panellists warned that ageing, heavily retrofitted fleets-where each new fuel‑efficiency, emissions or remote‑access system expands the digital attack surface-are especially exposed. The convergence of OT and IT across older tonnage turns incremental upgrades into systemic vulnerabilities, delegates were warned.

Key takeaways included making deliberate “friction” part of security design using extra checks, stronger authentication and controlled access, treating cyber as a core design driver rather than an IT add‑on, and using continuous training, testing and updates to defend against sophisticated adversaries. The panel underscored that attackers only need to be lucky once, a reminder of the asymmetric risk facing shipowners and operators.

Speakers also highlighted the leverage lenders can exert: as with decarbonisation, financiers can accelerate cyber adoption by demanding higher safety standards and fuller insurance coverage than minimum regulation requires.

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