Usb Port News

At a meeting of the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC), it was recognised that ships may also be exposed to so-called cyber-attacks. Now, the IMO wants to prevent hostile attempts to interfere with electronic systems in the maritime industry and it has therefore drawn up interim Guidelines on risk management. An important point of the guidelines is that potential attacks will not be aimed merely at traditional computer systems, but will also to a high degree focus on control and steering systems for, for example, navigation, machinery, communication, etc. The Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) has recognised that ships can also be exposed to hostile attempts to disturb or interfere with electronic systems, so-called cyber-attacks.

Are we that far away from phantom fully autonomous vessels plying the world’s seas? Not according to many in the know. Many predict by 2020 that we will see this type of ship with a limited crew in smaller applications such as the marine highway short haul scenarios, local ferry service such as the Staten Island ferry and offshore supply boats in the Gulf of Mexico. Phantom/drone unmanned ships reportedly would be safer, cheaper and less polluting for an industry that carries approximately 90 percent of the world trade. However as with aircraft drones and on the horizon driverless auto’s, we must be concerned with regulatory and safety issues.

An increasing number of systems on ships and at marine facilities depend on cyber technologies for routine operations. While cyber technology has improved efficiencies in the marine industry and around the world, it has also created potential vulnerabilities. For example, the towboats that move goods through the Western Rivers and along our coasts rely heavily on electronic navigation systems, including Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS), to safely transit around riverbends, capes, and shoals.

The U.S. Executive Branch has declared that the cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation, and that America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on effective cyber security. Before the maritime industry sounds the danger signal, it needs to monitor other industries and branches of the government and take proactive preventative measures. There is no better place to prepare future and current mariners for these challenges than in maritime simulators.

ESAB Cutting Systems introduces Crossbow, a compact oxy-fuel/plasma CNC cutting system that is portable and economical. According to ESAB , the machine’s size and weight make it easy to transport as the application requires. Automated functions and a user friendly CNC provide powerful, versatile, oxy-fuel or plasma processing in a value-minded package. Crossbow is suited for trade schools, small fabrication shops, maintenance and repair shops, or for portable use within large facilities or at construction sites.

E-navigation company NAVTOR has announced the introduction of NavSync, marking an important step change in the way that navigators can gain access to the very latest Electronic Navigation Charts (ENCs). NavSync allows the most up to date versions of the charts to be uploaded directly to the ECDIS from a USB device. Simple. Without the NavSync, navigators face the time consuming task of working out exactly which ENCs they require for journeys, ordering them in advance and then uploading them from CDs that are posted out to them. Not so simple. The system has been developed to work in tandem with NAVTOR’s recently launched “Pay As You Sail” DNV-approved ENC Service, which allows access to charts through a subscription-based model.

London - Kittiwake, a global provider of asset control and protection technology, announced the launch of its MHC Bearing Checker, a small, hand-held device, designed to provide an instant indication of machinery condition. The acoustic emission-based instrument is a solution to monitoring an unlimited number of machines on a periodic basis. Based on the detection of high frequency activity which is naturally generated by deterioration in rotating machinery, the MHC Bearing Checker is simple to use as its Distress® parameter removes the need for machine specific interpretations. If Distress® is greater than 10, the user knows there is a problem and can instigate further checks.

Predictive Sensor Technologies (PST), introduces its Wireless Environmental Temperature, Humidity and Dew point Sensor/Transmitter, (PST-THD) which, alerts the user via text or email when pre-set targets are reached. Operations which are sensitive to ambient conditions such as clean rooms, with sensitive electronics, commercial bakeries, food storage, transportation and processing and manufacturing of various powdered products have found that wireless condition monitoring from PST can help control critical parameters and eliminate surprise changes in conditions detrimental to the process.

MX Marine has unveiled a new family of marine GPS/DGPS products, which are designed to provide a flexible and expandable platform for the next generation of integrated navigation and marine information systems. The new MX500, MX510 and MX520 GPS control/display systems are being introduced by MX Marine to work with the MX521 smart antenna or MX525 black box receiver, providing a highly accurate integrated navigation solution that meets the latest international standards for GPS/DGPS, including Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM). The new-generation MX500, MX510 and MX520 are the first marine GPS systems to incorporate a common platform with the powerful Intel X-Scale 200 MHz processor with 16 MB Flash and 64 MB SDRAM memory, upgradeable to 400 MHz and 128 MB RAM.