Inmarsat introduces new Fleet Secure service

Peter Broadhurst Senior Vice President Safety and Security Inmarsat Maritime: "Cyber crime is an inevitable downside of the digital economy, on land or at sea"

SEPTEMBER 13, 2017 — Inmarsat (LSE: ISAT.L) today used London International Shipping Week to showcase its new Fleet Secure service.

Imarsat says Fleet Secure is the maritime industry’s first and only fully-managed service to detect vulnerabilities, respond to threats and protect ships from widespread cyberattack. 

Fleet Secure, which will will be commercially launched as a standard option on Inmarsat’s Fleet Xpress satellite communications service. is a Unified Threat Management (UTM) and monitoring service that will power cyber resilience at sea, offering vessel owners and managers continuous transparency on the status of their digital security and a 24/7 response to cyber crime. It detects external attacks via high-speed satellite broadband connectivity, while also protecting vessel networks from intrusion via infected USB sticks and crew devices connected to the onboard LAN.

Fleet Secure will seamlessly integrate with Fleet Xpress for no additional outlay on hardware and no impact on the customer’s contracted bandwidth.

“Cyber crime is an inevitable downside of the digital economy, on land or at sea,” says Peter Broadhurst, Senior Vice President Safety and Security, Inmarsat Maritime. “Other maritime cyber security offerings we have seen address only part of the threat or some of the management issues. Inmarsat’s new Fleet Secure service provides an all-inclusive, real-time managed monitoring service, giving ship operators and managers the cyber security tools they need to protect their fleets continuously from malicious attack or malware, detect vulnerabilities, and respond to threats.”

The UTM is powered by Singtel subsidiary Trustwave, a leading provider of information security solutions, and is available in a choice of three service levels. Service levels include a fully-managed “Gold” standard, with real-time threat monitoring and analysis, including immediate notifications to the customer with high severity level security threats followed up by telephone to escalate threat management.

“Silver” level includes daily review and threat analysis, while “Bronze” level enables users to self-check the vessel’s network status via an online portal.

The UTM combats viruses and blocks access to unsafe websites, isolating an infected area of the network to prevent it from spreading to other systems onboard.

“The threats from cyber attack demand robust technical solutions, network integrity, operational and training support, and raised awareness across the maritime sector,” says Broadhurst.

Fleet Secure complements the resilience of Inmarsat’s own satellite and ground network enabling consistent cyber security standards to be maintained.

Inmarsat is supporting a joint working group set up by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) to formulate a robust set of recommendations for cybersecurity at sea.