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Combined cyber and physical attacks on the maritime transportation system

Roberts, F.S.; Egan, D.; Nelson, C.; Whytlaw, R. (January 2019, NMIOTC Maritime interdiction operations journal)

For years, there has been discussion about physical security in the maritime transportation system (MTS). That discussion has led to standards, regulations, etc. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in cyber security in the MTS that has led to discussions about best practices for cyber security. It is likely that many future attacks on the MTS (and other systems) will be multi-modal, including both a cyber and a physical component. As a simple example, hacking into security cameras at a port increases vulnerability to a physical intrusion. Thus, a cyber attack could be a precursor to a physical attack, and in fact the opposite could also be the case. This paper presents scenarios of combined cyber and physical attacks and describes ways to understand their likelihood based on ease of attack and seriousness of potential consequences.

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Decision makers in all kinds of organizations, and in particular those concerned with homeland security, need to be able to easily flag trends so that they can respond, for example with a reallocation of resources or a review of policies and procedures. This paper introduces a simple-to-use tool called the TrendFlagger that allows a decision maker to get evidence that a trend may be appearing without requiring statistical sophistication. The TrendFlagger will be illustrated using a source of data that organizations might use to study shipping trends and vessel behavior, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) now required by international agreement on all ships of 300 gross tons or more and all passenger ships.