The challenge:

Cyber Security is a complex field that requires technical knowledge in IT and cyber risks. In the maritime industry, vessels are at risk of cyber incidents that could bring a vessel to a halt. Often times, the crew needs to be involved to help the shore team resolve the issue. However, the communication means are manual (email, texts, back end forth) and the crew lacks the knowledge to feel confident in taking action. Those create a reluctance from both sides (shore and crew) to delegate, but still having the need for collaboration. Adding to the complexity, cyber policy deviances are at the top of the risky behaviour from the crew. Helping them understand the consequences of risky behaviour would alleviate the potential breaches.

The approach:

I started this project with speaking to our customers (IT shore) to understand the process of incident resolution and involvement of the crew. Those interactions were critical in thinking about the challenge at hand because the customers on the shore are the final decision makers when it comes to the choice of communication, the degree of delegation and the visibility needed for them to feel comfortable that the product will ease their processes.

I then conducted interviews with crew members to gain insights into their own challenges when dealing with Cyber Security.

The outcome:

The results from those conversations showed the lack of cyber knowledge was an hindrance to better collaboration: the crew didn’t want to take on those responsibilities by fear of doing something wrong; the shore didn’t trust the crew to make these issues a priority nor to understand potential risky behaviours that could be prevented rather than reacted. Communication was another important challenge, from the means of communication to the content of it. Tools such as emails or texts are often used, making it extremely cumbersome on both sides. The need for detailed instructions for each party to feel confident in taking actions or delegating was another obstacle, due to the time involvement and the understanding of information.

The solution:

Providing a platform available onboard the vessels for shore to push incidents that crew could tackle, with simple steps to follow for resolution, adding notes and history to improve communication was the first step to redefine the workflow of those interactions. The second step was reinforcing the knowledge of Cyber Security onboard with a system of “just in time notifications”. A system of desktop notification would highlight the crew at the point of breach that this behaviour was risky and increase their awareness.