Page 22 - Navigator 18

FIRMly AGAINST CYBER-CRIME
Since the 11th of June 2018, it has been compulsory for 170 companies to immediately report large-scale IT problems to the so-called Port Cyber Notification Desk
22 NAVIGATOR NL 2018 N° 18
The maritime world is becoming more digital by the day. Besides unprecedented opportunities and possibilities, this brings with it new risks as well. Cyber-crime is steadily on the rise. Under the name FERM (the Dutch word for firm), efforts have therefore already been underway in the port of Rotterdam for a number of years to make companies more aware of and resilient to cyber-risks.
“The worldwide cyber-attack on the systems of APM Terminals on the 27th of June 2017 has greatly increased the attention for the activities of FERM. For many companies, it served as an unpleasant wake-up call,” says Harbour Master and Port Cyber Resilience Officer René de Vries. In this latter capacity, he is the face of FERM. Since 2016, this joint initiative by the Port of Rotterdam Authority, the Municipality of Rotterdam, the Seaport Police and the entrepreneurs’ association Deltalinqs has endeavoured to push cyber-security to the top of the agenda of the more than 700 companies in Rotterdam’s port and industrial area. FERM does this in various ways: a dynamic, constantly updated website with lots of useful tips and documents, seminars, a regularly staged Port Cyber Café for sharing knowledge and experiences and a major cyber-exercise once a year.
Exercise with mounting problems
One such large FERM exercise in which Loodswezen Rotterdam- Rijnmond also participated was CyberNautics 2017 at the end of last year. Many parties crucial to the well-functioning of the port gath- ered for a full day to practice a realistic scenario involving a gradually expanding cyber-attack on the port of Rotterdam which targeted the