Proceedings Of The Marine

WIN 2015

Proceedings magazine is a communication tool for the Coast Guard's Marine Safety & Security Council. Each quarterly magazine focuses on a specific theme of interest to the marine industry.

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56 Proceedings Winter 2014 – 2015 www.uscg.mil/proceedings Leading the Way Forward: The FBI's Legal Mandate Presidential Policy Directive 21, which addresses critical infrastructure and resilience, provides one of several authorities the FBI operates under in the cyber arena. The directive's overarching goal is to strengthen the U.S. critical infrastructure security and resilience against physical and cyber threats. Key elements of the mandate are to create added resilience at all levels and empower the public and private sectors to reinforce their own security through improved communication and connectivity with the federal government. The directive also gives the FBI specifc authority to lead investigations and related law enforcement activities across the critical infrastructure sectors to address these threats. The FBI also collects, analyzes, and disseminates domestic cyber threat information to interagency partners and the private sector. All of these eforts are closely coordinated with the Department of Homeland Security and other interagency partners. High Stakes on the High Seas Beyond maritime ports, ships are vulnerable to remote cyber disruptions. It is theoretically possible to block or send false signals to a ship's Automatic Identifcation System, which could show vessels to be on an incorrect course or not in their actual position. Fraudulent signals could even show phantom ships. The FBI, however, does not view these cyber threats as abstract or theoretical. In November 2013, the Govern ment Security News published an article that outlined the $1 billion a day in losses to the national economy that a cyber attack at a major port like Los Angeles or Long Beach could cost. The director of information at the Port of Long Beach noted that personnel block about 9 mil- lion network attacks each month. 1 But it only takes one successful intrusion to cause damage. Somali pirates already have capitalized on this low level of cyber and information security. In 2011, pirates used easily available cyber tools to research the Internet for information regarding ships passing through nearby waterways. 2 They then scanned for communications signals onboard the ships to locate vessels transporting valuable cargo. As the Somali pirates face increased naval pressure, the pirates have focused more on kidnapping West- ern crews and less on ransoming ships. However, they continue to do their research online. Pirates and their Image courtesy of US Geological Survey. GPS Spoofng In the transportation context, GPS spoofng is the purposeful redi- rection of a vehicle to an unintended location through manipu- lation of the vehicle's GPS signals. Typically, this is achieved by sending signals to the vehicle's GPS receiver that are stronger than the signals coming from the legitimate GPS satellite source. This causes the vehicle to lock onto the false signals, and may allow a malicious actor to insert false data into the coordinates system.

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