Cyber danger for Royal Navy

The government needs to improve training to thwart a rising threat of cyber attacks to the Royal Navy.

That is the opinion put forward in a new University of Lancaster report, which discovered that navy maritime systems are susceptible to  cyber attacks, with insufficient training and out-of-date systems not helping the situation.

Brian Honan, a security consultant, said that every single navy – and even every shipping company – is susceptible with regards to such threats. He explained:

“What the report highlights is that many ships use Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 – one of which Microsoft has stopped supporting, and one Microsoft is about to stop supporting. And because ships are at sea a lot, it’s not always easy to replace antiquated systems. It’s a problem faced by private companies too.”

Honan added that the report echoes an earlier one compiled by ENISA in 2014 that also highlighted security issues shipping firms are currently facing.

The transnational threats and political risk director for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Nigel Inkster, said that there are issues with the way the government approaches cyber security, in that it struggles to collate all the necessary information, with not everybody providing adequate details regarding threats.

A lackadaisical approach when it comes to cyber security is nothing new, unfortunately. Many SMEs up and down the UK need to be more vigilant in defending themselves against potential attacks. There needs to be not only improved training, but more firms willing to open up cyber security jobs to trained security staff in order to be better protected and less susceptible to attack.