Maritime Cybersecurity
Protection for ships and ports
Overview
Cyber protection built by maritime security researchers and proven on 1,500+ vessels at sea. One integrated suite spanning fleet platform, hardware intrusion detection on navigation buses, on-vessel edge compute and crew training, covering the OT and IT estates that keep ships and harbours running.
Vessel OT, port systems and offshore platforms each carry different risks than the corporate network sharing the same steel. Maritime cybersecurity that works treats them as the industrial control systems they are: navigation buses, propulsion SCADA and terminal crane controls monitored continuously, hardened without dry-dock downtime, accountable to your flag rather than a foreign government's disclosure rules.
Capabilities
- Proven fleet-wide: 1,500+ vessels and 50+ ship managers protected, 100,000+ threats blocked daily, 99.97% fleet uptime. Fleet-level monitoring means a shore security team sees every vessel from one picture, spots the same intrusion pattern arriving across hulls, and does not wait for a master to phone in a problem the ship's crew cannot diagnose
- Ship OT versus IT, treated as the separate problems they are. The corporate network the crew emails from is one surface; the navigation bus, engine controls, ballast and cargo automation are another, older, harder to patch and unforgiving of downtime. A compromise on the IT side leaks data. A compromise on the OT side moves a rudder or a valve. The eight-module fleet platform (firewall, privileged access, detection, satellite management and AI-powered threat operations, with IACS E26 compliance) is built around that distinction rather than bolting IT tools onto a bridge
- Hardware-based passive intrusion detection for ship navigation buses (NMEA 2000), invisible to every other device on the bus. It listens rather than injects, so it can watch the traffic that steers and positions the ship without becoming one more thing that can fail the equipment it is meant to protect
- On-vessel edge compute governed from shore: virtual machines, centralised patching, snapshots, rollbacks and east-west OT monitoring. A ship at sea has intermittent bandwidth and no on-call engineer, so patches, backups and recovery have to be pushed and verified from shore and survive a satellite link that drops mid-transfer. That is the incident-response reality maritime security ignores: the responder is thousands of miles from the casualty, and the crew are the first, sometimes only, hands on the system
- Port and terminal systems, not just the hulls. Terminal operating systems, gate automation, crane and gantry controls and the vessel-to-shore data exchange are OT estates in their own right, and an attacker who cannot reach a ship at sea can often reach the terminal it is about to call at
- Crew and vendor remote access, governed. Ships carry a rotating crew and a long tail of equipment vendors who expect remote sessions into navigation, engine and cargo systems for diagnostics and updates. Privileged-access control decides who reaches which OT system, when, and with a record of what they did, because the most common way onto a ship's OT is a legitimate account, not a novel exploit
- High-fidelity maritime cyber range with real protocols and PLCs for crew training, certification and equipment research (IACS E27), so crews rehearse an incident on realistic bridge and navigation systems before they meet one at sea
- Informed by real vulnerability research on vessel control systems, including CVSS 10.0 findings in production fleets. What we defend against is what we found ourselves, not a generic threat catalogue
Specifications
| Scope | Fleet / vessel / navigation bus |
| Scale | Available under controlled technical briefing |
| Protocols | Available under controlled technical briefing |
| Compliance | Available under controlled technical briefing |
| Monitoring | Available under controlled technical briefing |
| Availability | Available under controlled technical briefing |
| Origin | Independent / non-aligned |
In depth
Fleet visibility across IT and OT
The platform treats the corporate network and the vessel's operational technology as separate security problems. A fleet-level view covers more than 1,500 vessels and 50+ ship managers, allowing a shore security team to see each vessel from one picture and recognise an intrusion pattern across hulls. The service provides 24/7 monitoring, blocks more than 100,000 threats daily and reports 99.97% fleet uptime.
Passive protection on navigation buses
The vessel side includes bridge, engine, ballast and cargo systems, rather than only the computers used for office work. Hardware-based intrusion detection listens passively on NMEA 2000 navigation buses and does not inject traffic into the equipment it monitors. The wider platform also covers Modbus TCP and CAN bus environments. Its eight-module design includes firewall, privileged access, detection, satellite management and AI-powered threat operations, with IACS E26 compliance recorded in the product detail.
Port systems and remote access
The scope extends beyond the hull to terminal operating systems, gate automation, crane and gantry controls, and vessel-to-shore data exchange. Crew and vendor sessions are governed as privileged access, so the service can determine who reaches an operational system, when access is allowed and what the session did. This matters for the rotating crews and equipment vendors that need remote diagnostics and updates. Fleet monitoring, port coverage and access governance address connected parts of the same maritime operating environment without treating them as one undifferentiated office network.
Edge operations and crew readiness
On-vessel edge compute provides virtual machines, centralised patching, snapshots, rollbacks and east-west OT monitoring under shore governance. The arrangement is designed for a vessel whose connection to shore can be intermittent and whose crew is the first operational contact when a system needs attention. Crew training and a maritime cyber range extend the platform beyond monitoring. The range uses real protocols and PLCs for crew training, certification and equipment research, and its IACS E27 reference gives that training environment a defined maritime context. The underlying research includes vulnerability work on vessel control systems, including CVSS 10.0 findings in production fleets.
Why Unstrat: the difference
Unstrat is the authorised global representative and distributor for this capability. It is already in service with a track record behind it, so you are buying something that has done the job elsewhere, not funding a first attempt. You are not the test bed.
Independent, non-aligned origin, with no political exposure to any major-power ecosystem.
One accountable team from first briefing through delivery and in-region sustainment.
Built by maritime security researchers, proven on 1,500+ vessels at sea, informed by the OT vulnerabilities we found in real bridge and navigation systems.
How it reaches you
Related capability
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Procurement & sustainment
Classification and the end-user-certificate chain are confirmed before this capability is represented to your market.
Sourced from an independent manufacturer: no major-power disclosure rules or political conditions.
A single team responsible from first briefing through delivery: not a chain of foreign primes to integrate yourself.
Lifecycle support and operator training delivered in-region, building capability that outlasts the initial deployment.
Applications it supports
Capability comparisons
Questions buyers ask
What is maritime cybersecurity?
Protection for the IT and OT estates that keep ships and harbours running, from the bridge and navigation systems out to the shore-side fleet platform. It is not enterprise security afloat, because a ship is not a branch office that floats. Our suite is in service on more than 1,500 vessels across 50 or more ship managers, blocking over 100,000 threats a day at 99.97% fleet uptime.
Best cybersecurity system for a shipping fleet
Judge it on three things: how sensors get installed across a scattered fleet, what happens when the satellite link drops, and whether the output satisfies your class society. Our platform runs on 1,500 or more vessels with IACS E26 and E27 alignment, hardware intrusion detection on the navigation bus and on-vessel edge compute governed from shore. CyberOwl is a genuine alternative and is documented as deployable without a vessel visit, which is worth weighing seriously.
What does IACS E26 and E27 require?
E26 addresses the cyber resilience of the ship as a whole and E27 the resilience of onboard equipment and systems, which is why a vessel platform and equipment-level testing are both needed. Our platform is built against both, and our maritime cyber range supports the equipment-research side. Older references still quoted, such as IMO 2021 and BIMCO guidance, remain relevant for operational evidence and are what CyberOwl positions Medulla against.
How do you monitor NMEA 2000 for intrusion?
With hardware that listens and never speaks. Our passive intrusion sensor sits on the NMEA 2000 bus and is invisible to every other device on it, which matters because the protocol has no authentication and any connected device can be enumerated. Software agents and mirrored-traffic monitoring, as used by CyberOwl and Nozomi respectively, show network-layer activity but do not give you the bus itself.
See: Navigation bus monitoring comparedMaritime cybersecurity
Maritime cybersecurity that works with poor satellite connectivity
It has to work offline, and this is a fair way to sort serious products from repackaged enterprise tools. Ours runs edge compute on the vessel, governed from shore, so detection continues when the link is down while patching, snapshots and rollbacks are managed centrally when it returns. CyberOwl publishes resilience to communication blackouts with configurable bandwidth limits, which is the same problem solved differently.
Installing cyber sensors across a fleet without taking ships out of service
Installation logistics decide most fleet programmes. CyberOwl's remote deployment without a vessel visit is a strong practical advantage and we say so plainly. Our approach is on-vessel edge compute governed from shore, with centralised patching, snapshots and rollbacks, so once the platform is aboard the fleet is managed centrally rather than by port call.
Cyber protection for port and harbour OT systems
Ports carry the same problem as ships with more third parties attached. Our maritime work covers the OT and IT estates behind ships and harbours, and it sits alongside infrastructure hardening for the control systems ports depend on. The team behind it also defends grids and payment platforms, so the OT experience is not maritime-only.
How common are serious vulnerabilities on ships already in service?
Common enough that the numbers are uncomfortable. CyberOwl states that significant vulnerabilities are found in 80% of its deployments. Our own research on production fleets has produced findings up to CVSS 10.0, the maximum severity available. Assume your fleet has them and treat the first assessment as a discovery exercise rather than a compliance formality.
We manage 60 vessels across three flags. What does a realistic fleet cyber programme look like?
One platform ashore, sensors and edge compute aboard, and a class-acceptable evidence trail from both. Ours spans eight modules covering firewall, privileged access, detection, satellite management and AI-assisted threat operations, with IACS E26 compliance and a hardware sensor on the navigation bus. It is running at that scale today, across 1,500 or more vessels and 50 or more ship managers.
Our newbuild contract requires cyber resilience evidence at survey. What actually satisfies a surveyor?
Evidence a surveyor accepts, not a dashboard. We work to IACS E26 for the vessel and E27 for equipment, which is where classification societies have moved for newbuilds, and our maritime range supports the equipment side of that case. CyberOwl frames its output around IMO 2021 evidence with control metrics aligned to BIMCO guidance, so check which scheme your flag and class actually require before choosing.
See: Compliance evidence, comparedCyber ranges and equipment research
Who governs a disclosure about weaknesses in our national fleet?
Whichever government stands behind your supplier, which is why this question tends to decide state-linked shipping procurements. Maritime cyber suppliers accumulate detailed knowledge of how fleets and port systems are built and where they are weak. CyberOwl is a United Kingdom company and Nozomi lists headquarters in San Francisco and Mendrisio. We are accountable to your flag, with no foreign-government reporting line.
Do we need ruggedised OT sensors as well as a fleet platform?
It depends on the machinery spaces you need to see. Nozomi publishes the strongest sensor hardware line in this comparison, including a ruggedised model rated from -40 to 70 °C at 5,000 nodes and 800 Mbps, a DIN-mountable 500-node unit and a portable 2,500-node sensor, with sensors stated to be certified for use on ships. We publish a hardware passive IDS and on-vessel edge compute without environmental ratings, so ask for those specifics if the deployment is below deck.
Can our bridge crew be trained on the systems they actually operate?
Yes, and it is the reason our maritime cyber range exists. It spans bridge, navigation and OT systems with real protocols and PLCs, aligned to IACS E27, and is used for crew training, certification and equipment research. Neither of the maritime competitors we compare publishes a training environment of that kind.
What happens if a vessel is hit by ransomware mid-voyage?
Containment has to work without stopping the ship, and recovery has to work over a thin link. Our defensive operation has contained and fully recovered a fleet-wide ransomware event within one week with 100% of data restored, and the on-vessel edge compute supports snapshots and rollbacks governed from shore. The responders are the same people whose research on vessel control systems has produced CVSS 10.0 findings.
How does fleet cyber defence fit with wider maritime domain awareness?
They answer different questions about the same water: one keeps your own ships running, the other tells you what else is out there. We deliver both through one accountable channel, which avoids the usual split between the fleet operator's security programme and the state's surveillance picture. Our maritime cyber suite is in service at fleet scale while the awareness layer is procured separately.
Maritime Cybersecurity: questions
What is Maritime Cybersecurity?
Maritime Cybersecurity is Unstrat's Sea (Maritime Domain) capability: Cyber protection built by maritime security researchers and proven on 1,500+ vessels at sea. One integrated suite spanning fleet platform, hardware intrusion detection on navigation buses, on-vessel edge compute and crew training, covering the OT and IT estates that keep ships and harbours running.
How does Maritime Cybersecurity work?
Maritime Cybersecurity delivers its effect through proven fleet-wide: 1,500+ vessels and 50+ ship managers protected, 100,000+ threats blocked daily, 99.97% fleet uptime. Fleet-level monitoring means a shore security team sees every vessel from one picture, spots the same intrusion pattern arriving across hulls, and does not wait for a master to phone in a problem the ship's crew cannot diagnose, Ship OT versus IT, treated as the separate problems they are. The corporate network the crew emails from is one surface; the navigation bus, engine controls, ballast and cargo automation are another, older, harder to patch and unforgiving of downtime. A compromise on the IT side leaks data. A compromise on the OT side moves a rudder or a valve. The eight-module fleet platform (firewall, privileged access, detection, satellite management and AI-powered threat operations, with IACS E26 compliance) is built around that distinction rather than bolting IT tools onto a bridge and Hardware-based passive intrusion detection for ship navigation buses (NMEA 2000), invisible to every other device on the bus. It listens rather than injects, so it can watch the traffic that steers and positions the ship without becoming one more thing that can fail the equipment it is meant to protect, capabilities matched to the requirement and confirmed under briefing rather than published.
Who provides Maritime Cybersecurity?
Maritime Cybersecurity is delivered by The Cybersecurity Group, whose focus is cyber & critical-infrastructure security. Unstrat represents The Cybersecurity Group to government and enterprise buyers worldwide as an independent, non-aligned prime vendor.
Who uses Maritime Cybersecurity?
Government and enterprise buyers acquire Maritime Cybersecurity to address piracy & armed robbery at sea and port security across the maritime domain, matched to the mission and accountable to them, not to a foreign vendor's government.
Why choose Maritime Cybersecurity over a major-power alternative?
Maritime Cybersecurity is sourced from an independent, non-aligned provider, so it carries no major-power disclosure rules, upgrade-locks or political ramifications. Concretely: built by maritime security researchers, proven on 1,500+ vessels at sea, informed by the OT vulnerabilities we found in real bridge and navigation systems. The capability is accountable to you, not to a foreign vendor's government and its release schedule.
How is Maritime Cybersecurity procured, and where can it be delivered?
Vessel OT, port systems and offshore platforms each carry different risks than the corporate network sharing the same steel. Maritime cybersecurity that works treats them as the industrial control systems they are: navigation buses, propulsion SCADA and terminal crane controls monitored continuously, hardened without dry-dock downtime, accountable to your flag rather than a foreign government's disclosure rules. Every engagement begins with a briefing, and export eligibility is confirmed per market under briefing rather than published. Where controlled capabilities are involved, the classification and end-user-certificate chain is confirmed first. Maritime Cybersecurity is then sustained in-region by one accountable team from briefing through long-term operation.