Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.96fm.ie
The Cybersecurity Smart Maritime Challenge brought together members of the Irish Naval Service, the Defence Forces, and MTU researchers and students.
A simulated cyberattack that brought a port’s computer systems to a standstill and disabled a ship has been put to the test at Munster Technological University in Cork.
The Cybersecurity Smart Maritime Challenge brought together members of the Irish Naval Service, the Defence Forces, and MTU researchers and students for a realistic exercise in responding to a major cyber incident.
Held at MTU’s Nimbus Research Centre on Friday, October 9th, the simulation saw five teams tackle a scenario in which hackers paralysed a port’s IT systems and disabled a ship at its entrance, blocking all traffic.
Participants were tasked with identifying how the attack happened, regaining control of the vessel and helping Europol apprehend the leader of the hacker group.
The exercise was designed by Airbus in collaboration with Cyber Innovate, the National Maritime College of Ireland and MTU’s Department of Computer Science.
Speaking at the event, Ronan Coleman, Director of Cyber Innovate said:
“Since Ireland took up the Presidency of the European Council in July this year, maritime security and defence have been a significant national focus. Now more than ever, simulations like the Cybersecurity Smart Maritime Challenge are vital in ensuring that we are prepared for the threats we may face. Collaboration is key, and bringing together the Irish Navy, Defence Forces, maritime experts and cybersecurity specialists offers our students the opportunity to develop deep insights into how threat actors target critical infrastructure, and also enables them to develop the skills necessary to respond to these kind of attacks, which may ultimately lead to them creating new innovative products and solutions to counteract these types of attack.”
Dr George O’Mahony, Head of the Department of Computer Science at MTU, said:
“Preparing for cybersecurity incidents before they happen is critical to protecting Ireland’s maritime infrastructure. Through realistic simulations like the Cybersecurity Smart Maritime Challenge, running on a state of the art cyber range platform, participants can experience the complexity of responding to a major cyberattack, develop their technical and problem-solving skills, and learn how to make decisions under pressure. By working alongside experts from the Irish Naval Service and maritime experts, our students and researchers gain invaluable insights into the challenges facing the maritime sector. This type of hands-on training and collaboration is essential to building the pipeline of skilled cybersecurity professionals Ireland needs to respond to emerging threats.”
MTU says its cybersecurity training and research programmes help build the skills needed to protect Ireland’s infrastructure, while supporting Cork’s position as a cybersecurity hub.
