Maritime Cybersecurity in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore: Protecting the Global Maritime Transportation System From Catastrophic Hybrid Attack

The complex “system of systems” (Kessler & Shepard, 2022) that comprises the global Maritime Transportation System (MTS) is critical to the smooth running of global trade and commerce. It is, in the words of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), “the backbone of international trade and the global economy” (UNCTAD, 2021). “Around 90% of traded goods are carried over the waves” (OECD, 2023). Take a moment to think about that – nine out of ten of the objects in your home were brought to you by ship. If the MTS suffered a catastrophic breakdown, nine out of ten traded goods could become unavailable or scarce, potentially resulting in severe economic, political and social chaos. Key stakeholders are now beginning to understand the MTS’s growing dependence on complex digital and automated systems (Höyhtyä, Huusko, Kiviranta, Solberg, & Rokka, 2017; Tam & Jones, 2018; Yağdereli, Gemci, & Aktaş, 2015), and the vulnerabilities of those systems to malicious cyberphysical interference capable of causing a catastrophic collision or simultaneous cascading disruption to fleets of ships, or a major port. It is the kind of risk that is beginning to garner serious attention from government, the maritime sector broadly, international bodies like the IMO, and importantly the insurance sector that is being called upon to underwrite the risk.