CSO Alliance is pleased to announce an industry collaboration to combat cybercrime in shipping by creating a global Cybercrime reporting portal.
Considering that there is currently no global organisation structured to anonomise the cyber incident reports and provide useful analysis of the data, many partners agreed to combine all their ideas and experiences for the benefit of all.
The collaboration includes the following partners: BIMCO is representing Ship Owners, North P&I Club for the P&I sector, The Republic of the Marshall Islands Maritime Administrator a Flag State, and DNV GL for Classification Societies.
“This Coalition of partners is strongly supported and encouraged by regulators, and global military intelligence providers who understand the urgent need to work together with CSO Alliance towards their goal of Security through community” CSO Alliance said in a press statement.
How and why the cyber crime reporting portal works
A pilot website will be crafted by CSO Alliance technology partner Wididi (https://www.wididi.com/) who will bring experience from designing, building and operating a cybercrime reporting portal with the UK Gloucestershire Police https://www.safercybergloucestershire.uk. Wididi specialise in digitally streamlining processes and information around people – with a particular focus on security and privacy. The portal will provide the membership with curated cyber information, news, best practice, advice on handling incidents, tools and, importantly, live statistics on cyber and other crime.
Awareness of cyber security in the industry is definitely increasing, but there remains a requirement to share information and learn from incidents. The development of a secure cyber incident reporting portal makes complete sense and is the only way the industry can develop their own security measures to ensure serious incidents are prevented in the future., Phil Tinsley, Head of Security , BIMCO commented.
North Club believes that a strong cyber alliance and a high level of confidential and sometimes anonymous reporting will help protect our industry from cyber attacks.
“A maritime cyber-crime reporting portal can identify cyber-attacks and hinder their propagation by alerting users to their presence. Shipping has traditionally been a secretive industry and no one really knows to what extent cyber-crime has affected individual companies in the maritime supply chain. Sharing cyber security information will require a move away from a traditional preference for secrecy – the question is ‘Can the industry afford not to share?’”, said Colin Gillespie, Deputy Director of Loss Prevention, North of England P&I Club
The website will provide a tool for analyzing malware and, perhaps most critically, it will allow for the anonymous reporting of incidents. This feature can eliminate worry about consequences to an organisation’s reputation, while enriching data on types of threats and enabling rapid alerts on emerging risks to the entire industry.
