Wallem enhances cyber security on shore and on board

Darktrace’s Cyber AI Analyst combines human expertise with AI to triage, interpret and report on cyber-security incidents, contextualising events, adapting to novel techniques and ensuring consistent end-to-end protection.

By continuously monitoring network activity, analytics learn what is normal for each user, device and application and automatically detects and responds to new threats within seconds to protect against evolving infiltration methods.

Mr Ho points to a case in which Cyber AI Analyst detected malware beaconing on Wallem’s network. According to Darktrace, “beaconing occurs when a malicious program attempts to establish contact with its online infrastructure.”

Thanks to the AI solution, Wallem was able to trace the signal to malware on an employee’s computer, resolving the issue before it escalated into a full-scale network attack.

“Before we used Darktrace’s solution, we could only protect against the risks we expected,” says Mr Ho. “We lacked visibility of the hidden malicious activities on our network and the ability to correlate a series of activities with a potential cyber threat. This has all changed since we started working with Darktrace.”

He explains Darktrace’s cyber analysts trained Wallem’s IT department in interpreting, classifying and investigating potential cyber threats reported by the Threat Visualizer tool, which allows the group to determine the risk level of potential threats and prioritise them accordingly.

“Working with the company has given us fresh insight into security measures and best practice that we can apply across our fleet”

Based on the threat patterns identified, Wallem has fine-tuned its network and firewall policies. The group has also segregated its business, bring-your-own-device, and guest wifi networks and updated its IT policy to prohibit non-corporate devices from connecting to its business network.

“While we only use Darktrace’s solution on shore, working with the company has given us fresh insight into security measures and best practice that we can apply across our fleet,” said Mr Ho.

“With our offices now robustly and intelligently protected from evolving cyber threats, we have the capacity and peace of mind to focus on delivering services that facilitate safe, smart and sustainable vessel operations and ultimately serve the ship of the future.”

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