Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Ships infected with ransomware, USB malware, worms

Europe's largest port is embracing the Internet of things

From ZDnet by Catalin Cimpanu

Ships are the victims of cyber-security incidents more often than people think.
Industry groups publish cyber-security guidelines to address issues.

Ships suffer from the same types of cyber-security issues as other IT systems, a recent document released by the international shipping industry reveals.

The document is the third edition of the "Guidelines on Cyber Security onboard Ships," an industry-approved guide put together by a conglomerate of 21 international shipping associations and industry groups.

While the document contains what you'd expect to contain --rules and guidance for securing IT systems onboard vessels-- it also comes with examples of what happens when proper procedure isn't followed.

These examples are past cyber-security incidents that have happened on ships and ports, and which have not surfaced in the public eye before until now.
For example, the guidelines include the case of a mysterious virus infection of the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) that ships use for sailing.
A new-build dry bulk ship was delayed from sailing for several days because its ECDIS was infected by a virus.
The ship was designed for paperless navigation and was not carrying paper charts.
The failure of the ECDIS appeared to be a technical disruption and was not recognized as a cyber issue by the ship's master and officers.
A producer technician was required to visit the ship and, after spending a significant time in troubleshooting, discovered that both ECDIS networks were infected with a virus.
The virus was quarantined and the ECDIS computers were restored.
The source and means of infection in this case are unknown.
The delay in sailing and costs in repairs totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (US)
But this isn't the only malware-related incident that affected a ship, according to the aforementioned document.

Ships were also impacted by ransomware, sometimes directly, while in other incidents the ransomware hit backend systems and servers used by ships already in their voyage at sea.

For example, in an incident detailed in the report, a shipowner reported not one, but two ransomware infections, both occurring due to partners, and not necessarily because of the ship's crew.
A shipowner reported that the company's business networks were infected with ransomware, apparently from an email attachment.
The source of the ransomware was from two unwitting ship agents, in separate ports, and on separate occasions.
Ships were also affected but the damage was limited to the business networks, while navigation and ship operations were unaffected.
In one case, the owner paid the ransom.
But this wasn't the only incident.
In another, the entry point for the ransomware wasn't because of its interaction with shipping ports, but because they failed to set up proper (RDP) passwords.
A ransomware infection on the main application server of the ship caused complete disruption of the IT infrastructure.
The ransomware encrypted every critical file on the server and as a result, sensitive data were lost, and applications needed for ship's administrative operations were unusable.
The incident was reoccurring even after complete restoration of the application server.
The root cause of the infection was poor password policy that allowed attackers to brute force remote management services successfully.
The company's IT department deactivated the undocumented user and enforced a strong password policy on the ship's systems to remediate the incident.
However, remotely-accessed accounts and systems weren't the only sources of infections on ships.
The report also puts a great deal of attention on USB thumb drives, usually used to update systems or transfer new documents into air-gapped networks.

The report includes details of two incidents where USB thumb drives have led to a cyber-security incident, delays, and financial damage.
1) A dry bulk ship in port had just completed bunkering operations.
The bunker surveyor boarded the ship and requested permission to access a computer in the engine control room to print documents for signature.
The surveyor inserted a USB drive into the computer and unwittingly introduced malware onto the ship's administrative network.
The malware went undetected until a cyber assessment was conducted on the ship later, and after the crew had reported a "computer issue" affecting the business networks.
This emphasises the need for procedures to prevent or restrict the use of USB devices onboard, including those belonging to visitors.
2) A ship was equipped with a power management system that could be connected to the internet for software updates and patching, remote diagnostics, data collection, and remote operation.
The ship was built recently, but this system was not connected to the internet by design.
The company's IT department made the decision to visit the ship and performed vulnerability scans to determine if the system had evidence of infection and to determine if it was safe to connect.
The team discovered a dormant worm that could have activated itself once the system was connected to the internet and this would have had severe consequences.
The incident emphasizes that even air gapped systems can be compromised and underlines the value of proactive cyber risk management.
The shipowner advised the producer about the discovery and requested procedures on how to erase the worm.
The shipowner stated that before the discovery, a service technician had been aboard the ship.
It was believed that the infection could potentially have been caused by the technician.
The worm spread via USB devices into a running process, which executes a program into the memory.
This program was designed to communicate with its command and control server to receive its next set of instructions.
It could even create files and folders.
The company asked cyber security professionals to conduct forensic analysis and remediation.
It was determined that all servers associated with the equipment were infected and that the virus had been in the system undiscovered for 875 days.
Scanning tools removed the virus.
An analysis proved that the service provider was indeed the source and that the worm had introduced the malware into the ship's system via a USB flash drive during a software installation.
Analysis also proved that this worm operated in the system memory and actively called out to the internet from the server.
Since the worm was loaded into memory, it could affect the performance of the server and systems connected to the internet.
But the guidelines also warned against IT screw-ups, which, while not technically cyber-security incidents, usually cause the same effects.
Just like every IT department in every company anywhere around the world, ships have had their string of facepalm-worthy IT mishaps and system crashes.
1) A ship with an integrated navigation bridge suffered a failure of nearly all navigation systems at sea, in a high traffic area and reduced visibility.
The ship had to navigate by one radar and backup paper charts for two days before arriving in port for repairs.
The cause of the failure of all ECDIS computers was determined to be attributed to the outdated operating systems.
During the previous port call, a producer technical representative performed a navigation software update on the ship's navigation computers.
However, the outdated operating systems were incapable of running the software and crashed.
The ship was required to remain in port until new ECDIS computers could be installed, classification surveyors could attend, and a near-miss notification had been issued as required by the company.
The costs of the delays were extensive and incurred by the shipowner.
This incident emphasizes that not all computer failures are a result of a deliberate attack and that outdated software is prone to failure.
2) A ship was under the conduct of a pilot when the ECDIS and voyage performance computers crashed.
A pilot was on the bridge.
The computer failures briefly created a distraction to the watch officers; however, the pilot and the master worked together to focus the bridge team on safe navigation by visual means and radar.
When the computers were rebooted, it was apparent that the operating systems were outdated and unsupported.
The master reported that these computer problems were frequent (referred to the issues as "gremlins") and that repeated requests for servicing from the shipowner had been ignored.
It is a clear case of how simple servicing and attention to the ship by management can prevent mishaps.
The fact that ships are vulnerable to hacking and malware infections isn't anything new.
Ships have been a disaster waiting to happen for years, because ship makers have had an obsession with putting all of a vessel's systems online.

 A practical example of useful cyber security terminology to be aware of,
distributed by NCSC UK

In some cases, ships feature proper security controls, but in most, ship systems are often left exposed online where they are indexed by search engines like Shodan or Censys.

Many of these ship-designed IT systems either use default credentials or feature backdoor accounts, putting the ship, cargo, and passengers in harm's way due to sheer negligence.


The shipping industry got its cyber-security wake up call last year when Maersk, the biggest cargo shipping company in the world, was infected with the NotPetya ransomware.
The incident incurred costs of over $300 million, and during the recovery process, the company's IT staff had to reinstall over 4,000 servers and 45,000 PCs before being able to safely resume operations.

The updated guidelines released last week are a direct consequence of the shipping industry seeing how NotPetya, and a cyber-security incident in general, can cripple a company's operations.

These guidelines are meant for securing IT systems located on ships, but they're supposed to work with similar security controls deployed in ports and a shipping company's own internal IT network.

A copy of this guideline addressing common vulnerabilities within maritime shipping
is available from here, here, here, or here.

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Monday, January 21, 2019

Off the chart: the big comeback of paper maps


Back in the fold … paper maps are enjoying a renaissance, with technology helping to element the frustration of the creases getting in the way.
Image :
18th century World map with the trade winds from the German or Dutch cartographer Herman(n) Moll first published in England 1719.
Picture from Atlas Minor, edition London

 From The Guardian by Kevin Rushby

As Stanfords travel bookshop moves into new London premises after 118 years, its cartographer explains how the ability to tailor-make any map is keeping their magic alive.

When I was living in Yemen during the 1980s, someone gave me a battered old map.
Information was scarce then, and accurate maps were extremely hard to come by.
So departing expatriates tended to pass on any treasures to new arrivals.
As he did so, my benefactor paused.
“Be careful,” he said, “You don’t want to get caught with this.”

Maps, you see, can be dangerous.
I think of this when I meet Martin Greenaway, a cartographer at Stanfords in London.
Martin is sitting by a couple of computer screens behind a treasure trove of maps: tables covered in vast colourful countries, wall racks groaning with continents, drawers stuffed with cities and mountain ranges.
Stanfords has been making maps since the mid-1850s, and has operated from this purpose-built site on London’s Long Acre since 1901.
Now it is moving on – opening new premises in nearby Mercer Walk on 10 January.

Martin laughs at my Yemen story.
“A customer came in and told us how, in the 1970s, he pulled out a 1:50,000 map on a bus and got into trouble with a Spanish secret policeman sitting next to him.
Now we sell those same maps to walkers.”

And do many still buy them, I ask.
Isn’t the internet killing the paper map?

“GPS and Google have certainly eaten into the market,” he says, “But I think paper is going to make a comeback.
You just cannot orientate yourself as well with a handheld device.”

 ‘In a time when facts are to be treasured, perhaps paper maps have real significance.’ Martin Greenaway in the map room at Stanfords

 Martin Greenaway in the map room at Stanfords Long Acre store.
Photograph: Kevin Rushby for the Guardian

Part of the reason for this possible comeback is that Stanfords can now print any map you need, centred on the place you choose, at a scale that suits your purpose.
Martin takes me through the process.
“You know how the hike you want is often at the join between two or more maps? We simply re-centre it and print it for you.”

I’m reminded of the OS Explorer maps for the Lake District.
Four sheets, all of which manage to fail miserably for anyone doing a walk centred on where they meet, roughly Grasmere Common.
Now there’s a solution for someone like myself, a folded paper aficionado.

And who buys such maps?
“All sorts: a man who was researching an ancient pilgrim footpath in Italy got me to create a whole new map for it; a canoeist doing the Yukon River needed something similar.
We get homeowners who are in boundary disputes, pilots – and a lot of people who can’t get maps in their own country.”

That interests me.
Many years ago I bought a map in Stanfords for a journey in Sudan.
I knew I wouldn’t find anything like it once I was there.
Repressive regimes around the world have always wanted to limit cartographic freedom.

Martin nods.
“We had one man who wanted a street map of Homs in Syria.”

Maps and guidebooks at Stanfords’ new London store on Mercer Walk.

In a time when facts are to be treasured, perhaps paper maps have real significance, recording as they do a version of the truth less susceptible to tampering and fakery.

Martin quickly demonstrates the opportunities and limitations of digital mapping by pulling up all the information he has on Yemen’s capital, Sana’a.
It’s not a lot.
“This is Open Street Map, a website that uses GPS data from contributors’ phones to build maps.”

Home in on our own current location and the quality is good: every shop and alleyway in London’s Covent Garden is accurately plotted.
Move to North Yorkshire and a footpath I’ve recently walked in the Howardian Hills is totally absent.

Yemen as seen using the Open Street Map website
Facebook Twitter Pinterest  Yemen as seen using the Open Street Map website.
Photograph: Open Street Map

Not that paper is infallible.
The Ramblers is currently running a volunteer project called Don’t Lose Your Way, the purpose of which is to recover lost rights of way that somehow failed to make it on to maps.
Its conservative estimate is that England and Wales are currently missing about 10,000 miles of footpaths on what are intended to be the definitive maps.
These are held by all local councils and used by organisations including Ordnance Survey.

Martin himself clearly delights in the new technology but his love of paper has a practical aspect.
“I trained as a pilot when I was a teenager and we still need those paper maps.”

He flies a lot in Canada, relishing the remote regions where many lakes remain unnamed, and where if geographical features have a name, they tend towards the bizarre.
“My favourite is an escarpment in Alberta called Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump.
Mind you, the UK is pretty good: you’ve got places such as Cold Christmas and Unthank.” To which I can add, from personal experience, Wetwang and Slack Bottom.

Map and gps unit
For Stanfords’ Martin Greenaway the combination of a paper map and a GPS device (plus a compass) remain key.
Paper: The mapping technology that won't run out of battery. 
Photograph: Alamy

We go through the process of printing a map: I choose an OS Explorer-style production with my own house bang in the middle.
Handy for walks straight from the door.
Martin bumps up the scale a bit.
“It’s amazing how much more you see in a map when the scale is changed from 25,000 to 12,000.
There’s no more information – we can’t add that – but you do spot things you’d previously missed.”

We move to the formidable printing machine and load up with the paper of my choice, then watch as woods, streets and rivers roll out.
Next to us is the map of London’s streets that taxi drivers use when learning The Knowledge.

“People still do it?”
“Oh yes. We sell a lot of these.”

This formidable task is all the more fascinating at a time when the effects of the digital era on humans’ mental map abilities are becoming apparent.
A recent study at the University of Montreal found that some video games that relied on non-spatial strategies could reduce growth in the hippocampus, an all-important region for mental mapping.
The dangers of digital maps, it seems, could be inside your own head, rather than in the secret policeman sitting next to you.

Martin keeps both options.
“I always carry a GPS, a paper map and a compass.”


Map of the world published by Edward Stanford in 1879 shows the zones of trade winds which for centuries determined the routes taken across the oceans by ships like the Cutty Sark and other clippers.
Presented in lovely pastel colours, the map offers a great deal of interesting information both on land and sea.
Across the oceans in addition to the zones of trade winds it also shows the regions of calms and monsoons, the direction of currents, principal “Ocean Mail” routes annotated with distances, and submarine telegraph cables.
On land countries are shown in different colours, with their borders emphasized by stronger tints. Given the date of the map’s publication, much of Africa is still not colonized and Europe too is very different from today.
In terms of typography, main mountain ranges are shown by hachures and the map has a surprisingly large number of place names.
Eastern Siberia with Alaska and New Zealand with most of the South Pacific are shown on both sides of the map for more convenient presentation of that part of the world.
Two insets show the Polar region, with much of the coast of the Antarctic still to be properly mapped. Latitude and longitude lines are at 10° intervals; the map is drawn on a Mercator projection.
Additional features include time difference from the Greenwich Meridian and a calendar showing the progress of the sun within the Tropics.
 photo : Standford

I ask if he has a favourite map.
“Stanford’s 1871 world map, showing the trade winds.”
He fishes out a copy from one of the wall racks and we gaze in wonder at the colours and textures.
“It’s a work of art.”

It seems that paper maps will always trump digital in one important respect: beauty.

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Sunday, January 20, 2019

Swimming with huge female pregnant great white sharks


Footage has emerged of divers getting up close and personal with what could be one of the biggest great white sharks on record.
Kimberly Jeffries had been hoping to capture images of sea creatures feeding on a whale carcass off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii.
Ms Jeffries says catching sight of three massive pregnant female sharks was "an incredible source of knowledge for the scientific community".
She described it as "one of the most amazing things ever".
The biggest great white shark on record is visiting the American island state of Hawaii, divers say.
A group of divers monitoring the carcass of a sperm whale off the coast of Oahu say they have gone swimming with the massive predator, and that based on the size and the markings, the shark is known as “Deep Blue,” one of the largest great whites on record.
“She was just this big, beautiful gentle giant wanting to use our boat as a scratching post,” diver Ocean Ramsey told The Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Deep Blue is believed to be 6 meters long and at least 50 years old.
The Smithsonian says the average female great white shark measures just less than 5 meters, while males measure just less than 4 meters.
“Big pregnant females are actually the safest ones to be with — the biggest, oldest ones — because they’ve seen it all, including us,” Ramsey said.
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Saturday, January 19, 2019

Age of sail : old songs

Age of sail / Theatrical Version from Chromosphere
Set on the open ocean in 1900, AGE OF SAIL is the story of William Avery (Ian McShane), an old sailor adrift and alone in the North Atlantic.
When Avery reluctantly rescues a teen (Cathy Ang) who has mysteriously fallen overboard, Avery finds redemption and hope in his darkest hours.

Fine, la passeuse de Lampaul Plouarzel - Cinémathèque de Bretagne from CinémathèqueDeBretagne
 Sculling in the Aber :
A 1973 report at the heart of Fine's life, the smuggler between Lanildut and Lampaul-Plouarzel in Brittany, France.
Portrait of a sea worker who tirelessly took fishermen across the Aber Ildut, in the past to fishermen and at the end of the activity to tourists.
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Friday, January 18, 2019

Visualizing the world’s busiest ports


 From Visual Capitalist by Nick Routley 

An estimated 90% of world trade is facilitated by maritime shipping, and as trade volumes continue to increase, the world’s busiest ports continue to grow larger and more efficient to meet demand.



In fact, in just the last four years, the median annual volume of the top 50 ports jumped from 5.49 to 5.86 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Here are the world’s 20 largest ports, using the most recent data from the World Shipping Council:


Only five of the top 20 ports in the world are now located outside of East Asia. The Port of Los Angeles is the only U.S. entrant in the top 20, and only three European ports made the cut.

Today, trade is more likely than ever to flow through the South China Sea.

Ruling the high seas

From dollar store knick-knacks to nuclear reactor components, China’s manufacturing output is a critical link in the global supply chain.
Getting all those products to consumers and companies around the world is big business, and over the past decade, China has emerged as the heavyweight champion of world shipping.

While Danish company, Maersk, is still the largest shipping line, an ever increasing share of the world’s container traffic is moving through Chinese controlled ports.
An estimated two-thirds of container traffic now passes through Chinese ports or ports that have received Chinese investment.



New kids on the block

While shipping volumes on a global basis continue to rise, not all of that growth has been spread around equally. This is particularly true for established titans of the South China Sea.

At the outset of this millennium, Hong Kong and Singapore were home to the busiest ports in the world.
Today, both are facing increased competition from neighboring ports, as well as declining volumes:


In contrast, the massive Port of Shanghai saw a 71% increase over the last decade, and many other Chinese ports has seen significant growth in volume in recent years.



If China’s One Belt One Road initiatives and investments in global port facilities are any indication, the country’s domination of maritime shipping will only continue to strengthen in the near term.

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