Cybersecurity

Dynamics of a never-ending quest

By Stephen Metzger PhD Economist, and Adjunct Professor of Maritime Economics, Fordham University

The quest for making computer systems of the maritime industry – and all they control – secure against illicit and dangerous intrusions is never-ending. This is the case because human ingenuity is diligently at work in a game of strategy and deception, where the payoffs can be in the billions of dollars – as illicit gain or loss avoidance.

In the movie, “Catch Me If You Can”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, you will recall the extraordinary ability of Frank Abagnale Jr, the real-life man DiCaprio portrays, to impersonate and deceive supposed peers, ranging from doctors to airline pilots.

Abagnale, now a security consultant, makes two key observations: First, technology has actually facilitated the perpetration of fraudulent schemes. Second, all cybercrimes are enabled by someone who did something wrong, or failed to do something he or she should have done.

Focused

While not specifically focused on maritime sector, the National Cyber Security Index (NCSI) is a reasonable gauge of cybersecurity status among island nations in the Caribbean. It is useful to get an indication of where the region stands relative to other countries in the world, particularly island nations. See graph below.

Eight countries in the Caribbean Basin are depicted in the graph, showing their respective indices of cybersecurity, digital development and rank among the 160 countries for which data is collected. The region has an average rank of 127 (the higher the ranking the lower are the cybersecurity capabilities) out of the aforementioned total of 160 countries in the index. A selection of other small island economies, including Singapore, Iceland, and Cyprus had a much lower average score of 49.

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