In the past three years, the number of hacker attacks on global ship systems has increased tremendously and countries around the world are working on the development of ship network security technology.
In order to deal with cyber viruses that may attack autonomous ships and smart ships, Daewoo Shipbuilding is building up the ship network security technologies. The company announced on June 16 that it will cooperate with the Korean ship cyber security “strong and small company” DSLAB Company to develop an “intelligent system for responding to marine cyber threats.” PIOLINK, Inc. and other related organizations have established a cyber security technology research group to carry out the development and cooperation, promote ship cyber security technology, and achieve substantive results by the end of 2022.
Established in 2016, DSLAB Company is a South Korean “strong and small enterprise” specializing in security technology consulting, security software development, and other ship and ship network security technologies. Daewoo Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and DSLAB Company jointly developed the “Intelligent System for Response to Marine Cyber Threats”, which is a technical research and development project for marine industry demand by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of Korea. DSLAB Company will use its own “Cyber Turtle Ship” platform as the basis to develop security technologies ranging from ship safety design application software to supporting safe operations; Daewoo Shipbuilding will conduct actual ship testing of ships and ships equipped with this technology.
According to the Korean industry, in recent years, with the development of autonomous ships, smart ships, and smart ships that use information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), as well as the development of communication systems that connect ships and land-base. Ship network security has been improved. But it is a potential hacking attack on these types of vessels that leads to a huge loss of personnel and property.
Cyber risk management means the process of identifying, analyzing, assessing, and communicating a cyber-related risk and accepting, avoiding, transferring, or mitigating it to an acceptable level, considering costs and benefits of actions taken to stakeholders. The overall goal is to support safe and secure shipping, which is operationally resilient to cyber risks. IMO recently raises this potential risk in the maritime industry and also issue clear guidance on it.
Jung Woo sung, Vice President Naval & Special Ship Marketing Division of DSME, said: “Vessels using cutting-edge technology must be equipped with basic cyber security technology. Furthermore, we will develop new marine cyber security through cyber security technologies with professional companies and universities research” He emphasized: “The development of an intelligent system to respond to maritime cyber threats will also help strengthen the cyber security of domestically-produced aircraft carriers that integrate all the cutting-edge technologies of the Korean Navy.”
It is reported that Daewoo Shipbuilding signed a cooperation agreement on the research and development of advanced ship network security systems with the Graduate School of Information Security — Korea University in July last year. DSME aiming to strengthen the network of ships. In 2019, Daewoo Shipbuilding obtained the highest level of certification (Digital AL3 Safe Security) for intelligent ship network security technology from the British Lloyd’s Register (LR) for the first time in the industry. At the end of 2020, Daewoo Shipbuilding has also obtained the Approval of Principles (AIP) certificate from the Korea Classification Society (KR) for LNG carrier network security technology.
