Understanding the Vulnerabilities in Digital Components of An Integrated Bridge System (IBS)

Awan Awan,Al Ghamdi Al Ghamdi

doi:10.3390/jmse7100350

Abstract

The adoption of the global positioning system (GPS) within the marine industry has revolutionized the marine operations by condensing the navigation of a vessel into an integrated bridge system (IBS). An IBS acts as the main command and control of a vessel as it interconnects various digital devices used for navigation in open seas and is also connected to other on-board systems of a vessel e.g., navigation and control, propulsion and machinery management system, cargo management system and safety management system, core infra structure systems, administrative and crew welfare systems, etc. Additionally, it also provides a gateway to the Internet, thus, leaving not only an IBS vulnerable but also all the on-board systems vulnerable to cyber-attacks. We, in this study, have collected historical evidences about various vulnerable digital components in an IBS to better understand the security and privacy challenges associated with the vulnerable IBS components. Our study is the first of its kind that involves collection and review of 59 historical accidents reported in literature and has highlighted various vulnerability patterns, their causes and consequences, with geographical as well as temporal relationships for different vulnerable IBS components. The vulnerabilities of IBS components were reportedly exploited using various cyber-attack techniques e.g., jamming, spoofing, hijacking, etc. This review paper also forms a baseline for future work on vulnerabilities of IBS and maritime cyber security.

Highlights

Seas are used by a myriad number of users for commercial, leisure and military purposes
Unlike [9], which focuses on inland infrastructure our study explores the historical evidences that have affected the maritime operations in deep seas and the disruption has consequential effects on the inland infrastructure mainly in terms of delay or unavailability of goods at ports
The vulnerability statistics about integrated bridge system (IBS) components revealed that 43% of the collected evidences were related to the three components: automatic identification system (AIS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and sailing directions; which were considered as the vulnerable components by both maritime and cyber security experts

Summary

Introduction

Seas are used by a myriad number of users for commercial, leisure and military purposes. In addition to goods transportation, specialist ships, such as anchor handling and supply vessels for oil industry, salvage tugs, ice breakers, cable layers and research vessels, are used for performing specialist activities; fishing vessels are used for fishing in deep seas; while military uses seas for coastguard ships, fireboats, frigates, corvettes, destroyers, amphibious assault ships, aircraft carrier, combat ships, submarines, etc. Apart from the commercial transportation vessels and other specialized ships, cruise ships and ferries for pleasure voyages use the seas. The presence of such a diverse set of vessels requires navigational information as well as coordination with other nearby vessels, buoys and ports to ensure safer journey from the source to destination points while avoiding collisions and natural disasters

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion