In an effort to boost the resiliency of vessels and facilities, the U.S. Coast Guard is urging owners and operators of these structures to fortify their cyber defenses.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s July 8 marine safety alert comes with cybersecurity best practices for vessels. Among them: segment networks into “subnetworks” to make it more challenging for an attacker to gain access; create network profiles for all employees; and be careful of external media, including USB drives.
Other tips are more basic: install antivirus software and make sure to patch.
“Maintaining effective cybersecurity is not just an IT issue, but is rather a fundamental operational imperative in the 21st century maritime environment,” according to the alert. “The Coast Guard therefore strongly encourages all vessel and facility owners and operators to conduct cybersecurity assessments to better understand the extent of their cyber vulnerabilities.
,quality(10),blur(50))