Shipping grows by buying and building. What arrives with each deal often stays out of sight long after the paperwork is signed.

The newest technology wins the attention and the budget. The forgotten corner of a digital estate wins neither. That quiet corner is usually where trouble starts.

Ambition at sea is only as sound as the oldest system still switched on.

On paper, Maersk’s confirmation that attackers took data from a local legacy system is a small incident. The system came to the company through an earlier acquisition. Maersk found no evidence that the attack reached its wider network or the customer and partner systems linked to it. It expects no disruption to operations, and so far it has found no sign that sensitive data was disclosed.

What matters is how the attackers got in. Shipping has spent a decade consolidating. Owners buy fleets, groups absorb ship managers and carriers take over logistics businesses. Every deal brings in software and servers built to someone else’s standards: planned maintenance tools, crewing databases and local file stores. These systems still work, so nobody wants to switch them off. Some may also sit outside the group’s central security programme, leaving them with less oversight

Regulation barely touches this gap. Since 2021, the IMO has expected cyber risk to be handled within safety management systems. IACS requirements E26 and E27 now apply to ships contracted from July 2024. Both frameworks deal with vessels and the systems on board. Neither covers the server that came with a takeover years ago and was never looked at again.

Maersk has been through worse. In 2017 NotPetya kept its core operations offline for about a week and cost it up to $300 million in lost revenue. This breach stayed contained, which suggests the rebuild after that attack has held up. Few owners have been through a crisis on that scale, and fewer have had the budget to rebuild afterwards.

Containing a breach does not end the risk. Stolen data does not need to be sensitive to cause harm. Names, contact details, vessel information and invoice formats are enough for a fraudster to write a convincing email to a charterer, an agent or a crew member. That is why Maersk has told customers to check any unexpected messages through their usual contact.

For shipowners and ship managers, the fix starts at the deal table. An IT inventory belongs in due diligence next to class records and charter parties. Each inherited system needs a named owner from day one and a fixed date to be retired, migrated or isolated.

Maersk caught this breach itself. A smaller company with older systems may first hear about one from a client holding a fake invoice.

Our Thoughts on the Digital Ship Summit Connectivity & Cyber Resilience Panel

Operations can be outsourced. Accountability for cyber risk cannot. Insight and SmartSea recently joined fellow panellists to ask whether shipowners rely too heavily on vendors to manage cyber risk. Our takeaways; bring in specialists but keep accountability, and make sure everyone knows who is responsible for what. Crew training must keep pace, as remote access only works if seafarers can use it safely. Get the basics right first, then put real risk in front of the board, alongside the security budget. Challenge partners and look for credentials such as ISO 27001. Give people the same attention as the technology going on board. If you could close one cyber gap across your fleet tomorrow, where would you start? 

Want the full reflections? Watch the panel here.

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