Atlas Cybersecurity has released the most comprehensive technical assessment of the state of superyacht cybersecurity to date based on over a year of research on board a number of superyachts. The findings of the report show, based on hard data, that there are systemic failings in on board cybersecurity policies, procedures, and technologies throughout the yachting industry.

“Far too many yachts today lack the knowledge, technology and processes to know if there has been a cybersecurity incident aboard their yacht,” comments Ben Dynkin, CEO of Atlas. “In our work, we have found several active compromises on ship systems that were able to bypass traditional security defences and would go completely undetected but for Atlas’ services. These attacks included traditional tools like spyware, as well as advanced tactics perpetrated by Nation-State level threat actors.

“In addition to finding several cases of active compromise aboard superyachts, the Atlas team also found that superyachts generally lack the ability to understand security vulnerabilities within their own environment. For example, 100 per cent of superyacht had exploitable vulnerabilities and 87 per cent had high/critical vulnerabilities that had gone unaddressed, in some cases for several years.”

The report clearly demonstrates that if superyachts want to comply with the upcoming International Maritime Organisation (IMO) cybersecurity requirements and ensure the safety and privacy of their guests and owners, cybersecurity must be addressed on board, and not only through policies and procedures; technologies and human expertise are required as well.

“Superyachts must be able to detect threats and vulnerabilities, as well as respond to deficiencies and compromises quickly and efficiently, if not, it is only a matter of time before they fall victim to bad actors,” add Dynkin.

To read Atlas’s First Annual State of Superyacht Cybersecurity Report, click here. Additionally, to read in detail how the findings of the report relate to the practicalities of the superyacht market and the upcoming IMO requirements, click here to download The Superyacht Innovation Report, which explores a host of the market’s most interesting and pressing developments.

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