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In this episode of the Shoreline Maritime Risk Podcast, we have the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Roberts of RightShip.   Rightship represents itself to be the world’s leading Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) focused digital maritime platform, providing expertise in global safety, sustainability, and social responsibility practices.  Consequently, we were confident they would be the right people to speak to about the issue of seafarer abandonment and how the use of data they have collected over the years on this difficult subject area can be put to best use, resulting in zero harm outcomes for those working at sea today.  We were not wrong, the conversation that ensued was both enlightening and disturbing in equal measure. 

In this episode we have the pleasure of speaking with Max Boby’s once again, Max leads Hudson Cyber, a division of HudsonAnalytix.   Hudson has 30 years’ experience in the US oil spill response space and now see many parallels between oil spill response and the ever-evolving needs for a well structured and supported cyber response plan for vessels entering US waters.   They recently launched their Cyber IQ service which is a play on the role of the QI (Qualified Individual) in the oil spill response scenario and we were eager to hear how this service can help shipowners with their cyber regulatory and operational compliance in the US today.

The depth of analytical insight and provision of ‘actionable intelligence' in the maritime domain has evolved considerably over the last few years. This has been made possible by the availability and accessibility of data sources and the involvement of data scientists and machine learning engineers to make sense of it. In this episode of Shoreline’s Maritime Risk Podcast, Shoreline consultant Nick Maddalena is joined by Brendan Moore and Eric Anderson from Synmax, a satellite data analytics company based in Houston and London. We discuss the dramatic evolution of the commercial satellite industry, how those changes have delivered deep insights into shipping activity and the maritime domain as a whole. Brendan Moore has spent almost 18 years working within the Intelligence field, combatting organised crime for the UK government across drugs importation, firearms and cyber. He has taken this expertise in intelligence and tackling criminality into SynMax as CEO. Eric Anderson is Synmax’s Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Synmax, Eric worked in the energy trading industry for 10 years, most recently as a Quantitative Analyst developing models used for commodities trading. At Synmax he leads a highly skilled team of Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers and GIS Engineers from a diverse set of industry backgrounds including financial trading, energy and earth observation.

Every Quarter, the Mission to Seafarers asks crew serving on vessels around the globe how they feel about their lives at sea. Covering their experiences onboard and the things that matter to them, from connectivity to wages. workload to welfare, training, shore leave to health, diet and interactions onboard. The Seafarers Happiness Index gives insight into the way those at sea feel, and the reasons why. It is a vital tool for the industry to know its people, to hear their opinions and what their impacts are on them and also the wider risks faced by shipping. You can find out more at happyatsea.org    In this episode, Shoreline speaks with Steve about his index and how it correlates with ship safety and optimal efficiency.  We discuss what makes seafarers happy and look to the future of always on connectivity and what that might mean from a risk management perspective.    Lest we not forget the disastrous grounding of the MV Wakashio on the Mauritian coral reef in 2020, due to an error in navigation caused when going off track in search of better cell phone coverage, a case like this underlines the importance of managing the issue of shipboard connectivity.  But what are the unintended consequences of this communications prerequisite for a happy shipboard life, and how can an owner and operator manage this new risk to shipboard safety.   Speaker: Steven Jones Steven spent a decade working at sea as navigation officer, and has subsequently worked ashore across the maritime industry, within shipping companies, Government, insurers, publishers and professional bodies. He has also developed solutions for maritime issues, including the Seafarer Happiness Index with The Mission to Seafarers. Steven is Past President of Propeller Club Liverpool, an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He holds an MA in International Relations and MSc in Marketing, Communications and Public Relations.

Introduction: In this episode, we focus on the intersection of geopolitical, socioeconomic, and cyber risk.  We ask leading risk experts, how the intersectionality of these three macro risk factors impacts the safe operation of ships at sea today? We discuss the motivations behind cyber-attacks, in particular nation state espionage and ransomware attacks?  And; finally, we gain a better understanding of what is meant by a threat informed cyber risk management strategy and question what this looks like in practice for maritime risk managers.   Speakers: Tom Scriven is a Strategic Consultant at Mandiant based in the UK, specialising in Security Operations and Threat Intelligence advisory services. His first role in IT security was for the Royal Navy as a Communications Technician, before moving to support key UK government departments in security operations. He has significant experience as a trusted advisor to sensitive areas of government, and has consulted for major corporate entities, including in critical national infrastructure sectors, to undertake major cyber security assessments and implement complex cyber security transformation programmes. Tom has worked with large multinational companies to assess their security programmes, providing prioritised recommendations and roadmaps to enhance security posture and effectiveness.    Dr Jamie Collier is a Senior Threat Intelligence Advisor at Mandiant. He is also active within academia as an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). Before joining Mandiant, he was the Cyber Threat Intelligence Team Lead at Digital Shadows and completed a PhD in Cyber Security at the University of Oxford. Jamie was previously based at MIT as a Cyber Security Fulbright Scholar and has experience working with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, Oxford Analytica, and PwC India. 

Recently, Shoreline CEO Captain Thomas Brown has noted a spate of MARPOL violation cases in the US and pondered whether much has changed in the intervening 25 years since he was last at sea? In this podcast we will attempt to answer this question with the expert assistance of George Chalos, founding partner of the US maritime the law firm CHALOS & Co. George will hopefully bring us up to date with the ongoing issues as they relate to MARPOL violations in the US. George has spent a lifetime defending the interests of shipowners and seafarers alike when caught up in MARPOL prosecutions state side.  Most investigations and when warranted, subsequent prosecutions, often arise from irregularities in written entries in the oil record book and/or whistleblower reports. Although not squarely within Shoreline’s remit as an OPA90 COFR guarantor, we do recognize the connection this difficult subject has with a myriad of important issues including the environment, the law and the human cost of these often difficult and damaging cases.

In the first year that the Bank of England has agreed to include a maritime realistic disaster scenario into its general insurance stress test, the University of Plymouth’s Maritime Cyber Threats Research Group was asked to propose an appropriate maritime cyber stress test.   The stress test proposed concerns threat actors gaining access to the bridge systems of commercial seagoing vessels and compromising the control systems.   The intrusion goes undetected for weeks until the threat actor locks the rudder and propulsion system of a container ship causing it to hit a quay in the port of Singapore. A day later, the threat actor causes another container ship to hit a quay and cranes in the port of Los Angeles.   Physical damage is caused to the quay and cranes, there is some loss of cargo and some hull damage. The threat actor threatens further accidents unless a US$50 million ransom is paid by each of the top five cargo shipping companies (as measured by twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) capacity).   As a precautionary measure, many ships stop their journeys and all container port authorities close their ports until the bridge systems of impacted ships are checked, disrupting the maritime supply chain accounting for 90% of world trade in goods. It takes three days to determine which elements of the bridge system have been compromised and two more days to develop a solution.   The motivation of the threat attacker is more political than financial with the ransom demand adding to the confusion.   Our speaker today is Professor Kevin Jones, who, as a Director of the Maritime Cyber Threats Research Group, played an integral part in the submission of this RDS.   The scenario was conceived in line with the University’s work as part of the €7 million Cyber-MAR project, which aims to develop greater awareness of the cyber threats facing the global shipping fleet and the most effective ways of countering them. It was then demoed in the Cyber-SHIP Lab, a unique, hardware-based maritime cyber security research and development platform supported by funding from Research England and several industry partners. Speaker - Professor Kevin Jones Kevin is the Executive Dean, Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Plymouth.  As a Director of the Maritime Cyber Threats Research Group, Kevin is currently investigating some of the most pressing technological threats posed to global shipping at all levels from theory through to practice. Under Kevin’s leadership the group has published widely on the security challenges facing the maritime sector, developed partnerships with businesses and in 2018 was the only UK representative at the US Coast Guard panels on Maritime Cyber Security. Finally, Kevin is playing an integral part in the recently formed Cyber-MAR network, a €7million European network which aims to enhance cyber preparedness across the maritime sector.   

Bitesize Risk Podcast  Welcome to this the 12th episode, in the series of Shoreline’s Maritime Risk podcasts.  Today, your host Captain Thomas Brown has the pleasure of speaking with Antonio “Johnny” Martinelli.  Johnny came to our attention when he appeared in this year’s Maritime Cyber Conference, ‘Hack the Port’ in Florida.  Johnny is currently the Director of Cybersecurity Training with the Grimm Security Engineering group but is most well-known for his work on the American TSA Master Key leaks between 2014 and 2018. Today we will discuss remote vessel access, the potential consequences of a failure to detect malware embedded within shipboard IT and OT systems and the risk of virus migration from ship to shore and the possible consequences thereof. Speaker Bio Antonio “Johnny” Martinelli is a predominant personality in the Information Security community, most well-known for his work on the American TSA Master Key leaks between 2014 and 2018 and the Venmo public feed scraping exposures in 2018. Currently the Director of Cybersecurity Training with the Grimm Security Engineering group, he has formerly partnered with Australian firm 'Kasada' to defend against the automated abuse of web infrastructure and was the lead consultant on Uptake, Inc's Industrial Cybersecurity Platform. Prior to this, he spent many years in the field as a penetration tester, focusing heavily on both IT and physical security of financial and medical facilities, Security Engineer for a global Fortune 500 retail corporation, and Mainframe auditor and Systems Engineer for several IT asset recovery firms.

In this bitsize episode Shoreline discusses a malware at sea attack with Cyber Owl’s CEO – Daniel Ng. Cyber Owl provides maritime cyber security monitoring services, in this episode, we hear how Cyber Owl detected a malware attack on a number of vessels within a shipowner’s fleet whilst at sea. Daniel walks us through the process of detection, confinement and neutralization of the malicious code embedded within shipboard IT/OT systems. This type of attack can and does happen to ships at sea, find out how to deal with this modern day risk by listening to the experts. 9 minute listen. 

Episode 10 is brought to you by myself Captain Thomas Brown who will be in conversation with Max Bobys.  Max leads Hudson Cyber, a division of HudsonAnalytix. Hudson are a company Shoreline has a long relationship with, dating back to the early days of OPA 90 and the requirement for QI and OSRO services. In more recent times Shoreline has welcomed Max’s input when developing Shoreline’s insurance risk transfer solutions namely ICCI and MCI. Max is hugely experience in the sphere of cybersecurity acting in an advisory capacity to many national in international agencies whilst also authoring many publications on the subject.

In this episode, we check in with AcrisureRe's Cyber Practice Leader Tom Quy. Tom provides a thorough explanation of the current cyber insurance market dynamics, how the cyber threat is evolving and what his means for buyers of maritime cyber insurance.

Host: Captain Thomas Brown CEO Shoreline Guest: Anthony Hess CEO Asceris Intel’s legendary co-founder and former CEO Andy Grove put it best when he said, “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid will survive.” When a shipping company measures success by its historical ability to avoid a cyber-attack, it becomes complacent and ever more prone to attack. Only by being paranoid and meticulous in its continual cyber risk assessment, from which flows the implementation of its cyber security and risk transfer strategies will a company become more cyber resilient, thereby surviving and prospering in this internet age. In Episode 8 of Shoreline’s series of Maritime Risk Podcasts, Shoreline’s CEO Captain Thomas Brown speaks to Anthony Hess, the CEO and co-founder of cyber response company Asceris, to address the issues of cyber claims quantification and analysis. When you become the victim of a successful cyber-attack what does that look like, what are the likely financial losses your company may have to assume and how do you recover and get back to business? We also discuss the value of Maritime Cyber Insurance as an integral part of your company’s overall cyber risk management strategy and discuss the ancillary benefits of the insurance cover that go beyond financial risk transfer. If you are struggling to understand and quantify the size of your cyber risk exposure we can highly recommend listening to this very insightful discussion to hear the thoughts of a cyber risk professional who has responded to 100’s if not 1,000’s of cyber-attacks both large and small.

Shoreline’s Cyber consultant Nick Taylor we will be speaking to Julian Clark.  Julian is the Global Senior Partner at Ince and Co. and also heads up Ince Maritime’s new cyber initiative. The time to speak about the legal and insurance issues as they relate to maritime cyber risk has never felt more prescient than it does today. With the exclusion of silent cyber risk from property and liability policies of insurance, ship owners are forced to look for ways in which they can plug gaps in cover, and; from a regulatory perspective, with the new IMO 2021 Cyber requirements now in play, there is a greater focus on the need for clear company policies on cyber security both at sea and ashore. More prominence is being given to the delineation of Cyber risk and liability when drafting legal contracts.  Cyber risk is now center stage when agreeing charter party terms and / or entering into contracts for service or supply with third party vendors. In today’s podcast we will delve deeper into these modern day problems and discuss the size and shape of the issues at hand, whilst also focusing on how shipowners may mitigate and transfer these cyber related risks out of their companies.

The shipping and commodities industries have found themselves at the forefront of sanctions developments in recent months.   As the United States continues its campaign of sanctions against Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela, the Office of Foreign Assets Control or ‘OFAC’, is increasing the pressure on the maritime and commodities industries to require sanctions compliance. My name is Nick Maddalena, a consultant for Shoreline, the specialist insurer that provides pioneering maritime insurance solutions on a global scale for US trading and beyond. In this, the latest in the series of Shoreline’s Maritime Risk Podcasts, I discuss with two leading experts the maritime sanctions ‘seascape’ and the risks and repercussions to shipowners of non-compliance. Mike Salthouse is a member of the senior leadership team at North Group and a qualified lawyer. He has led industry engagement on the topic of sanctions with the US, EU and UK governments since 2011. Ron Crean leads global energy, maritime and insurance at Windward. His 27 year maritime career spans shipbroking, liner shipping, tanker chartering and ports and he was one of the pioneers of using AIS data to track commercial shipping starting AIS Live in 2004.

Facilitation payments have long been the scourge of the port visit for the deep-sea master. The outstretched hand, the muffled request; that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you realise you have no option but to facilitate the permission needed for ship operations to progress smoothly and unencumbered.   It's the asymmetry of the risk versus remedy equation that has taxed the conscience of many a ship's master, with the risk being, delay to the vessel's operating schedule and the remedy being a carton of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey. The inequality of this simple financial equation has allowed this petty crime to become more and more pervasive over time.     For too long now the ship's Master has balanced on the horns of this rather annoying dilemma, being dammed if he does and dammed if he doesn't. On the one hand, he has his legal and contractual obligations which should prevent such a transaction taking place, and on the other, to fail to do so may lead to delay and the loss of many thousands of dollars for his owners and the loss of his livelihood should he fail to meet the swingeing time pressures that accompany charterers orders. In this podcast, Shoreline’s CEO – Captain Thomas Brown review’s this very real maritime risk and discusses ways in which the industry is fighting back and changing through the collective action of the many and the expertise of the few who have the vision to create a better industry outcome.   We will look at the prevention and the cure.   Prevention being the mandate of the Maritime Anti-Corruption, which has made great strides over recent years to curb these shady practices, offering support and advice to shipowners and their seagoing masters to prevent the practice of bribery at sea and; the cure will be discussed with our colleagues at Control Risks who have responded to many a cry of help from their shipowner and insurance clients when caught in this crosshairs of this criminal activity.    About the Contributors   Cecilia Müller Torbrand MACN Executive Director Cecilia leads MACN. She was one of the front drivers for its establishment in 2011, and has served as chair of the network and as collective action lead in the MACN Steering committee.   Vivek Menon Head of Collective Action and Partnerships (EMEA) Vivek leads MACN's collective action programs within the regions of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is primarily responsible for collective action projects in West Africa, with a focus on Nigeria.   John Bray Control Risks – Director John Bray is a risk consultant and policy specialist with more than 30 years' experience in Asia, Europe and Africa. His particular areas of expertise include anti-corruption strategies for the private sector; business and human rights; and private sector policy issues in conflict-affected areas. Asia Pacific │ Social Risk and Impact Assessment│ Political & Economic Risk Consulting │ Corruption Risk Assessment & Analysis

Just before midnight on October 3rd 2020, the ten year old, Maltese flagged, Greek owned, Aframax tanker - MV Syra suffered an explosion and damage to her forward section, whilst taking on crude at the Bir Ali crude single buoy mooring system, located in central Yemeni waters. The explosion was thought to have been caused by a sea mine or floating improvised explosive device.  Today Shoreline’s Captain Thomas Brown was joined by Cormac McGarry and Ashley Halabi of Control Risks to analyze the news of this attack on one of Shoreline’s client vessels. News reports have further suggested that significant pollution may have been caused by the explosion whilst a number of floating objects reported in the vicinity of the tanker were reported to have subsequently exploded. This is a worrying development in maritime security for vessels navigating and operating within the Gulf of Aden and Yemeni waters. Shoreline acts as COFR guarantor for much of the petroleum cargo shipped from this part of the world to the US and hopes this podcast will provide useful insight and information to their clients operating in this particularly volatile part of the world. Cormac McGarry - Senior Analyst, Maritime - Control Risks  Cormac is part of a specialised analytical team, spread across the world, dedicated to global, international and supranational issues where his primary responsibility is to manage Control Risks’ maritime intelligence and security services.    Ashley Halabi - Researcher, Middle East and North Africa - Control Risks Ashley contributes to analysis of political, security and operational risks in the Middle East and North Africa and leads on Lebanon and Yemen. She writes analysis on political and security developments and their implications for commercial activities. She also contributes to bespoke consulting reports for clients in a range of sectors and jurisdictions. Ashley monitors and logs incidents related to civil unrest, terrorism and war in the Middle East and North Africa.    

According to the UN Refugee Agency, some 40,000 people have attempted to cross from North Africa to Europe in 2020 alone, the size of this humanitarian crisis is further compounded when we learn that 400 of these migrants are reported to have lost their lives when making this dangerous journey.    The legal complexities of migrant rescue involves the application of international conventions and multi-jurisdictional and agency issues, all of which does nothing to alleviate the ship master’s moral and legal obligation to respond to the plight of migrants when in distress at sea. It’s in the DNA of those who work at sea, to save life at sea and in so doing, they often expose themselves, their vessels and their employers to safety, legal, security and commercial issues that can take time and money to resolve. In this podcast we will look at the legal and operational complexities of seaborne migrant rescue and we will point our listeners in the right direction to access freely available information, advice and support when caught in the crosshairs of the perhaps inevitable political standoff which may ensue when seeking a safe place to disembark those that you have saved at sea. Today Shoreline has the pleasure of speaking to two leading industry experts on this issue, namely; David Hammond – David is the CEO and founder of the Human Rights at Sea Organisation, HRAS is a not for profit, advocacy charity, that strives to deliver social change through legal and policy development to ensure human rights apply equally to those at sea as they do to those on land, and; Dr. Victoria Mitchell – Victoria is part of Control Risks’ dedicated maritime security team, providing global analytical coverage of maritime security issues. Victoria is an expert in the law of the sea and holds a PhD that addresses this and maritime security cooperation.

The volume of data available in the world is growing exponentially; according to recent predictions by International Data Corporation, the amount of data created worldwide in 2025 will be ten times what it was in 2017.  Increased digitalisation of the shipping industry is an inevitability. The consumption of data analytics to gain deeper maritime domain awareness is on the increase. Indeed Shoreline is a consumer of data analytics derived from AIS positional data. They work with leading data analytics firm Windward, to establish accurate reporting on Shoreline’s insured fleet for every entry, exit and duration of stay within the United States Exclusive Economic Zone. Windward’s artificial intelligence-driven platform processes millions of data points to establish accurate vessel tracking in pre-defined areas or ‘polygons’. Shoreline uses data analytics to re-engineer their internal administrative procedures to create significant efficiencies for the business and their client base. In this podcast Nick Maddalena, a consultant for Shoreline, talks to Ron Crean VP of Commercial at Windward about digitalisation and the shipping industry and whether Covid-19 has accelerated our adoption of all things digital. Nick Maddalena is an independent consultant working with both insurers and insurtechs to create strategies for digitalisation and distribution respectively. He has spent the majority of his 30 year career working within corporate and private insurance companies entering into new product environments and opening distribution channels in a variety of geographic areas. Immediately prior to founding Quilla Consultancy, Nick was Head of Insurance for a leading data analytics firm. Ron Crean is VP of Commercial at Windward. Ron qualified as a Chartered Shipbroker and has experience developing business in 30+ countries and leading global teams mainly in maritime and energy related businesses including shipowners, ports and particularly maritime technology/information businesses.

On the 4th of July, 2019, the Iranian tanker Grace One was detained by UK forces in Gibraltar on suspicion of EU sanction violations and on the 19th of July a British flag tanker, the Stena Impero was detained by Iran's Islamic revolutionary guard Corps. Track forward to August 2020, and we find Iranian forces once again, boarding another vessel this time a Liberian flag tanker, the MV Wila.  Are these events connected and should shipowners be concerned with the apparent escalation of hostilities in the Persian Gulf. We'll aim to answer these questions with Cormac McGarry senior analyst at Control Risks and Jonathan Wood lead analyst for North America and deputy global research director for Control risks.