What do you do if a hacker takes over your ship?

You’re on the bridge, with the ship’s course shown on the digital display. But why is the ship continuing to turn west?

Everything looks normal on the computer screens in the dark wheelhouse—but outside, the land is dangerously close. What’s going on?

Down in the engine room, workers report via radio that everything is normal, but they wonder why the bridge has changed course. The engines are revving and the ship is picking up speed. The engine room hasn’t done this. What now?

Cybersecurity is a hot topic for the entire maritime industry, as well as in academia. A joint team recently conducted a completely new cyber security course at NTNU in Ålesund.

Probably the first of its kind

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Ålesund’s program for the maritime industry has just offered a new course entitled “Maritime digital security” (in Norwegian).

Over two months, course participants have looked at digital threats. They have assessed the risk of existing digital threats and realistically practiced a cyber attack on a ship under way. The key focus is on risk management of cyber attacks and building resilience.

“Where information technology and people meet, there is room for digital vulnerability. Security breaches can come in through the ship’s systems and through the port system and through the people who operate or supervise them,” Marie Haugli-Sandvik and Erlend Erstad said.

Both are Ph.D. candidates at the Department of Ocean Operations and Civil Engineering at NTNU. They are studying how the maritime industry can be better equipped to handle cyber attacks.

The two Ph.D. candidates have developed and now run the maritime digital security course, which appears to be the first of its kind in Norway.

The course has been included as part of the doctoral…