The maritime domain is a vast network of agencies, shipping companies, insurances companies, offshore and onshore operators, port operators, authorities and other stakeholders that must concentrate their work in synchronism to prevent maritime cyber-attacks.

Referring to cybersecurity in general, we prefer the Merriam-Webster’s concise definition: “measures taken to protect a computer or computer system (as on the Internet) against unauthorized access or attack”.

First we had to establish a working definition of maritime cybersecurity, and we define maritime cybersecurity as measures taken to protect network and computer assets both on ships, terminals, ports and all computerized equipment supporting maritime operations.

Also starting from the definition of cyber-attack, “an attempt to damage, disrupt or gain unauthorized access to a computer, computer system, or electronic communications network”, we can conclude that in the maritime domain the above should be extended to any attack made to the same computer assets on ships, terminals, ports and all computerized equipment that support maritime operations.