Speaking at the ‘Maritime security in the 21st century’ symposium at the Brazilian Naval War College, Rio de Janeiro, on 20 July, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim highlighted the Organization’s work and response to a changing maritime security landscape, emphasizing that IMO is working to address the digital revolution in all aspects of its work.
Autonomous vessels, known as Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), was one of the issues raised by the Secretary-General, who said that IMO is currently assessing regulatory aspects in this field, which includes looking into the subject from the aspects of safety, security, legal liability, responses to incidents and marine environment protection.
In addition, Mr. Lim highlighted the Organization’s growing concerns about cyber security, and the potential vulnerability of ship’s onboard information technology and operational technology systems.
Moving further, he emphasized that the maritime industry can both drive and support a growing economy and help achieve a truly better world, and that, therefore, safe, secure shipping is key to a far wider constituency than just the industry itself.
In a technical side event on MASS, IMO’s Chris Trelawny also spoke about the issue, giving an outline of how the regulatory process at IMO works, and that a correspondence group looking into the issue had been established at IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC 99) and started its work.
