Increased cyber and eavesdropping threats to Yachts and Superyachts

Recent industry reporting indicates the Cyber and eavesdropping threats to yachts have increased since COVID.

How many different networks are on board your yacht? Are they isolated to stop any access from the guest Wi-Fi to a sensitive network such as the CCTV or navigation? How many suppliers and manufacturers have remote access to your yacht? Are your crew trained to spot and not click on suspicious links? What devices on board require connection without security, like toys, lamps, cameras, watches?

Yachts have what all hackers love: money, secrets, negotiations for deals, reputations, famous people. Cybercrime is big business that’s getting ever more sophisticated.

Between February and May 2020 maritime cyber-attacks quadrupled as remote work became the norm.

A superyacht, by its autonomous nature, can give a false sense of security. People feel safe on a remote and protected cocoon and their need for high connectivity makes them vulnerable.

Cyber criminals can gather information to use against a high profile or high net worth individual through malware or spyware, via compromised crew credentials or by gaining access to the yacht’s more sensitive networks via a less secure one like the guest Wi-Fi. Yachts are also prime targets for invoice fraud since the captain and manager have to validate a lot of diverse transactions.

Here at Valkyrie, we have seen a recent increase in requests for yacht-TSCM inspections and cyber services – both services were recently highlighted in our post on the 05th May detailing our Cyber Concierge Service (CCS) where we combine both services to form Cyber Technical Surveillance & Counter Measures (CTSCM).

If you would like to know more about our services, please email us at security@valkyrie.co.uk or call +44 (0) 2074 999 323