The maritime industry is an attractive target for hackers as it handles large transactions and saleable information. Cyber attacks against the maritime sector could lead to ship collisions, physical injury to crew, loss of cargo, pollution or business interruption. The average cost of cyber attack exceeds $1 Million. For example, a 2017 attack on A.P. Moeller-Maersk cost them more than $200 million. As the industry aims to achieve greater efficiencies, vulnerabilities to cyber attacks are emerging due to the reliance on computers. Yet many maritime organisations fail to mitigate cybersecurity risks, as they often do not recognise what an attractive target they are to cybercriminals. Additionally, the maritime industry faces unique technological challenges that make implementing cyber security solutions challenging. For example, many ships run out-dated operating systems that are prone to cyber-attacks. Moreover, cyber attacks can occur due to human error if crewmembers are unfamiliar with maritime computer systems.

Nonetheless, technological developments such as artificial intelligence (AI) can help maritime companies to improve cybersecurity and reduce or even eliminate potential cyber attacks. As cyber attacks get larger and more complex, artificial intelligence (AI) is helping ship owners and operators to fight against threats. AI can augment human element to reduce the time spent, provide businesses with a holistic picture of the environment and improve productivity. As cyber systems are the cornerstone of maritime industry operations, maritime operators should protect themselves from potential business disruption. To help ship operators protect their businesses, Sirius Insight platform offers a solution that fuses data from numerous sources such as AIS, other trackers, satellite ‘earth observation’ data, terrestrial data and many other sources. Sirius Insight then goes further by utilising AI and machine learning (ML) to detect and track vessels with potentially unusual behaviour. AI ability to learn, understand behaviour and identify deviations in patterns make it perfect for tackling future cybersecurity attacks.