Web-based AIS fails hack security test, but navigation not threatened

摘要

Areport that the automatic identification system (AIS) for ships is vulnerable to security breaches exaggerates the danger to the industry and fails to take into account details of how the system operates, according to maritime industry analysts. At the Hack in the Box Security Conference in Malaysia in October 2013, researchers from the security software company Trend Micro demonstrated that hackers can manipulate Web data that includes ship information. Because of vulnerabilities in the public websites, hackers such as pirates can create fake ships and show the vessels anywhere in the world; change a ship's name, speed and status; and create fake aids to navigation or modify existing ones.