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Copenhagen-based security expert wehowsky.com sees huge potential for Artificial Intelligence to protect ships. Founder Andreas Frederik Wehowsky talks to HANSA about vulnerabilities, crew behavior and autonomous sensors

You do not only work with shipping customers: What can the maritime sector still learn from other industries, what[ds_preview] homework does shipping have to do?
Andreas Wehowsky:
We actually work mostly with land-based customers, but we are seeing a big demand in the future of intelligent cyber defense on ships, because more and more devices on the ships get connect to each other and servers / services in the cloud, which opens up new vulnerabilities. This is similar to companies that are getting more digitized with cloud services, IoT etc., which require a better cyber defense.

In what sense is Artifical Intelligence (AI) important for your network Sensor »Muninn«, how does it increase safety?
Wehowsky: 
AI is a major game changer and one of our unique selling points. In order to be able to fight unknown cyber attacks, you need a well-working AI-based threat detection and prevention. If you don’t have AI, you can only look for known threats, for example attacks that have happened elsewhere, which means you are not prepared for new types of attacks, which could be mutations of ransomware etc.

What role does crew behavior play in order to have Muninn work effectively? Are there any restrictions for the seamen on board?
Wehowsky:
We don’t expect the crew to use Muninn, just to provide basic support such as installing it. Muninn is autonomous and connects to our cloud, so a cybersecurity partner can provide a fully managed service towards the shipowner, inclunding monitor for alerts, incident handling and reporting.

How quickly can you react to an attack, for example by closing down the internal ship system?
Wehowsky:
Muninn can detect and block threats in real-time. Some slow and stealthy threats could take a little longer. But given that the average period from an attack happening to it being identified is 140 days, it is a major improvement.

Is the ship also protected by Muninn when it is connected at port to local networks?
Wehowsky: Yes, because it is installed behind the firewall and gets a full raw data capture from the main switch.Is the system also functional in remote areas? Wehowsky: Yes, all computations take place on the Muninn sensor itself, nothing is sent to the cloud to be computed. So it also works offline or with intermittent internet connections.

Interview: HANSA