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Study: cyber attack increase threatens sea traffic, ports and offshore rigs
In a study published in Marine Policy journal, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) maritime security law expert and associate professor Saiful Karim argues there is an urgent need for comprehensive and innovative international maritime security laws
The rapid increase in cyber attacks on the maritime industry during the global pandemic has highlighted the inadequacies of the existing international legal framework and the urgent need for comprehensive and innovative international maritime cyber-security laws.
Professor Saiful Karim analysed the threats to maritime cyber security and called for a specific, international, enforceable legal regime to deal with these threats.
“Ports, ships, maritime supply chains and major offshore infrastructure including oil and gas installations are vulnerable to cyber attacks. The international maritime industry relies on cyber systems for all aspects of operation and management and may face cyber attacks from so-called activists, terrorists, and transnational cyber criminals,” Dr Karim said.
“Both cyber crime and cyber terrorism create complex international legal problems for prevention and prosecution.”
Dr Karim said International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the main global forum for regulatory development to ensure maritime cyber security, and it had an instrumental role to play for development of fit-for-purpose international law to combat maritime cyber crime and cyber terrorism.
“Despite adopting non-legally binding guidelines and a quasi-legally binding resolution on cyber security, IMO falls substantially short in the development of specific and binding cyber-security regulations,” he said.
“Nevertheless, some provisions of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS Convention), the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention), the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic (FAL Convention) and the related codes and protocols are relevant for ensuing cyber security of ships, ports and offshore infrastructures.
“For instance, the 2005 amendment of the SUA Convention, while not directly addressing cyber terrorism, is useful, such as its criminalisation of using a ship to perpetrate maritime violence.
“Despite their relevance for maritime cyber security, none of the IMO conventions comprehensively deal with cyber security.
“An urgent legal reform is needed because the legal response is far slower than fast technological innovation, use and abuse.”
Dr Karim said enforcement of international maritime cyber-security regulations is another urgent challenge because no universal enforcement jurisdiction for maritime cyber crime and cyber terrorism exists.
“Therefore, prosecution of maritime cyber criminals and cyber terrorists is difficult,” he said.
“Two potential legal avenues for prevention of maritime cyber crime are found in the UN Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which puts a general obligation on the flag states to take actions to safeguard their ships’ safety, and in doing so “is required to conform to generally accepted international regulations.” (UNCLOS, Article 94).
"The UNCLOS mainly refers to the IMO legal instruments as the ‘generally accepted international regulations’. The UNCLOS and customary international law also recognise the coastal states’ right to enact and enforce national laws for maritime safety and security, but this power is limited regarding foreign ships," Dr Karim said.
“Therefore, an international legal architecture requiring uniform maritime cyber-security standards and deterrent punishment for perpetrators of maritime cyber-security crimes is of paramount importance for effective action against cyber terrorism and cyber crime.”
Maritime cyber security and the IMO legal instruments: Sluggish response to an escalating threat? was published in Marine Policy.
Editor’s note: this article originally appeared on QUT’s website.
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