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.
Issue link: https://uscgproceedings.epubxp.com/i/436751
62 Proceedings Winter 2014 – 2015 www.uscg.mil/proceedings door. "So, we're good," when it comes to cyber security. Some information assurance and technology professionals may be foored by such a statement, but this is the reality of it. The media continues to report daily information about security breaches, leaving millions of credit cards, health records, or other personally identifiable information in criminal hands. Most people are fully aware of the impact that cyber breaches can have on business payroll accounts and operational environments within critical infrastructure sites; however, facilities continue to report to the National Response Center (NRC) a tourist taking photographs of a critical infrastructure facility's smoke stack, because he thought it looked cool. It's 2014, and the mindset needs to change. Implementing Cyber-Specifc Security Plans The U.S. Coast Guard's authorities and missions have long revolved around search and rescue, defense, homeland Cyber Security and the Marine Transportation System For decision makers and planners, understanding the com- plexities, uncertainties, and dynamic nature of the cyber domain is critical for understanding vulnerabilities and threats, developing appropriate courses of action, and eval- uating metrics and measures of effectiveness. As enterprises and organizations rely more wholly on computer networks for operations, data storage, and communications, they will become increasingly desirable targets for identity thieves, hacktivists, 2 state actors, and extremists. Perhaps one of the most pressing aspects of increasing cybersecurity awareness is that personnel in positions best situated for mitigation and response do not always know enough. For example, the U.S. Coast Guard intelligence specialists to an area maritime security committee (AMSC) provided a maritime cyber threat intelligence briefng not too long ago. During the question-and-answer session, one AMSC executive steering committee member announced that their server computers are kept at night behind a locked Information Sharing and Intelligence Rethinking Reporting Handling transportation cybersecurity incidents. by MR. WesTOn R. laaBs Intelligence Operations Specialist U.S. Coast Guard, Sector Lake Michigan Highly publicized examples of cyber breaches in the marine sector, such as successful hacking of the Automatic Identification System (AIS), 1 have shed light on the cybersecurity challenges that the maritime industry must face and work toward securing. Today, cyber breaches have garnered so much attention in the security world that government organizations, think tank researchers, aca- demia, and the private sector are all clamoring to develop best practices, recommendations, and regulations to help fit the emerging challenges. A Vessel Traffc Service workstation displays various means used to moni- tor maritime traffc including Coast Guard Vessel Traffc System, Automatic Identifcation System, radar and closed-circuit television. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Offcer Nathan Bradshaw.