(Photo: Shutterstock) (Photo: Shutterstock)

The shipping industry needs to take cybersecurity far more seriously, according to a survey that emerged today—like a red sky in the morning—and the warning is not just for the maritime folks, but for any company that has dealings with them.

Cyberattacks on the maritime industry could expose client data and have far-reaching collateral consequences for an array of U.S. businesses that are involved in importing, exporting or otherwise have ties to the shipping world.

While nearly 40 percent of all the survey respondents said their maritime company had been targeted in a cyberattack in the past year, an alarming 64 percent indicated that their companies weren't prepared to deal with the fallout from a data breach.

That's according to Jones Walker, which surveyed 126 executives, chief information and technology officers, managers and other leaders for American port operators, cargo shipping companies and ship owners and operators. The latter group accounted for 60 percent of the survey respondents.

April Danos, information technology director for Louisiana's Port Fourchon, said in a statement that the results of the survey “demonstrate that every maritime industry stakeholder needs to assess its vulnerability to a cyber attack, take preventive action and determine how it will respond.”

Digging deeper into the survey results revealed not just a general lack of preparedness, but also a chasm between small and large maritime companies, the former of which were far less confident about their cybersecurity shields or their ability to respond to an incident.

Only 6 percent of the respondents from small companies and 19 percent of those from midsize companies said they were prepared to prevent a breach.

Meanwhile, 100 percent of the large company reps said they were ready. And that's good, because 80 percent of those same companies reported that they were targeted in cyberattacks over the past year. Maybe that's why 97 percent of the large companies reported that they carry cyber insurance coverage.

By contrast,  the vast majority—92 percent—of small companies and 69 percent of the midsizers reported that they had no cyber insurance. The survey suggested they are far less likely to be cyberattack targets, however: 83 percent of small companies and 60 percent of midsize companies said they weren't targeted in the past year.

In 2012 then-FBI Director Robert Mueller famously said there “were only two types of companies: Those that have been hacked and those that will be.” So just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't.

Martin Davies, a professor of admiralty law and director at Tulane University's Maritime Law Center, stated that the survey “provides evidence of a worrying level of complacency among maritime industry operators about cyberattacks.”

He called for industry and political leaders to take action.

Other findings from the survey:

  • Large and midsize companies view external attacks, such as malware and ransomware, as the biggest threat, while small companies were more concerned about internal negligence.
  • Large companies reported that 31 percent of the cyberattacks they'd experienced in the past year were successful. Five percent of midsize companies reported successful breaches and small companies said they had not been breached.
  • A majority of respondents from companies in all three size brackets said they planned to increase their cybersecurity budgets in the coming year.