The Coast Guard plans to unveil a new cyber security strategy within the next month that focuses on protecting not only Coast Guard networks and systems from cyber attacks, but also the country’s 3,600 sea ports and facilities, and the ships they serve.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft said in an interview the strategy will outline authorities and requirements for the shipping firms and port facilities the Coast Guard is charged with protecting under the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.
Zukunft said many major U.S. ports are nearly fully automated. “So they are vulnerable to a cyber attack, depending on what safeguards they’ve put in place. There’s no requirement for them to do so and there’s no universal standards,” he said.
“One challenge that remains is complacency, that ‘no one would want to penetrate my system.’ And so that’s where having authorities and requirements would be in our nation’s best interest,” he said.
