Shipboard Networks News

Whilst investigating a cyber incident onboard a ship the USCG found that the security risk presented by the shipboard network was well known among the crew before the incident.In its recent Marine Safety Alert 06-19, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) shares its findings from an investigation into a cyber incident onboard a commercial vessel:“In February 2019, a deep draft vessel on an international voyage bound for the Port of New York and New Jersey reported that they were experiencing a significant cyber incident impacting their shipboard network.

Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine has released a major upgrade to its VisionMaster FT bridge software. VMFT11 includes several key updates that support safety of navigation, including enhanced bridge alert management, an improved user interface and secure data exchange onboard ship and between ship and shore.A key driver behind the VMFT11 software update is to decrease the mariner’s workload in alert management, by reducing the number of high priority radar and ECDIS alerts, so that…

The next hacker playground: the open seas - and the oil tankers and container vessels that ship 90 percent of the goods moved around the planet. In this internet age, as more devices are hooked up online, so they become more vulnerable to attack. As industries like maritime and energy connect ships, containers and rigs to computer networks, they expose weaknesses that hackers can exploit. Hackers recently shut down a floating oil rig by tilting it, while another rig was so riddled with computer malware that it took 19 days to make it seaworthy again…

The U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman Corporation have installed Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) on the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell. The installation was completed during the ship's approximate five-month scheduled maintenance at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan. Prior to installation, Northrop Grumman produced, integrated and tested the CANES system and delivered it for acceptance to the Tactical Networks Program Office, Program Executive Office of Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I).

Mikros Systems Corporation, announced that it was recently awarded two new U.S. Navy contracts. The contracts cover follow-on work based on Mikros' AIRchitect-EMC wireless network design tool, "interference-aware" network design software which allows the Navy to optimize shipboard network design while avoiding interference with critical radar and communications systems. AIRchitect-EMC was developed by Mikros and subcontractor Intelli-Check - Mobilisa, (Port Townsend, WA) for the Navy under a SBIR Phase II development contract to study Radar Wireless Spectral Efficiency (RWSE). The first program is a subcontract to the Classified Wireless Networks for Embedded Forces program…

Power systems specialist Rolls-Royce now derives nearly $1.5 billion of total annual sales of $8.7 billion from the marine market, and an important element of its growth strategy in the marine domain is the development of its electrical capabilities, products and technology. The increasing use of electrical drives and other sub-systems, and a move towards highly automated, integrated shipboard networks, is evident in both the commercial and naval sectors, in the technology-intensive, specialized vessel categories which form the group's heartland business areas. The success of electrical power and propulsion systems in application to high capacity cruise vessels has proved to be one of the most significant technological developments in commercial shipping over the past decade and a half…