By Ashwani Mishra, Editor-Technology, 63SATS Cybertech
It’s midnight on the open sea. A merchant vessel cruises under a star-studded sky, seemingly insulated from the chaos of the world. Below deck, however, chaos brews—not in the engine room, but in the vessel’s digital core.
Without warning, the crew’s communication systems flicker. Email goes dark. Navigation tools show signs of interference. Unbeknownst to the crew, a cyberattack has just breached the ship’s defences—no guns fired, no alarms sounded, but a war has begun.
This isn’t a scene from a Hollywood techno-thriller. It’s a growing reality for the maritime industry, according to the newly released Marlink SOC Report for the second half of 2024. The open ocean is becoming the latest battleground in a war fought with malware, manipulated data, and malevolent AI.
Surge of Silent Attacks
Marlink’s report lays bare the scale and sophistication of the cyber onslaught. Between July and December 2024, the company’s global Security Operations Centre monitored nearly 2,000 vessels, logging a staggering nine billion security events and 39 billion firewall incidents.
What’s more alarming is not just the volume, but the nature of these digital assaults. Over 700,000 security alerts and more than 10,000 confirmed malware incidents were reported. From merchant ships to luxury yachts, no one was spared.
Phishing remained a popular weapon—emails masquerading as urgent alerts, invoices hiding malware payloads, and links designed to trick even seasoned mariners. But this time, cybercriminals had a new co-captain steering the wheel: Generative AI.
AI Turns Villain
2024 marked the rise of cyber threats supercharged by generative artificial intelligence. Attackers tapped into large language models not just for crafting emails, but for scripting exploit code, generating fake login portals, and even imitating internal communications with uncanny accuracy.
The report revealed a troubling trend—AI wasn’t just assisting attacks, it was enhancing them. From automating phishing campaigns to mimicking voices in audio messages, genAI enabled criminals to execute sophisticated social engineering at scale.
What once took hours of reconnaissance and coding now happens in minutes, thanks to these AI tools. The seas, once threatened by pirates with rifles, are now stalked by hackers with algorithms.
Organised Crime Goes Offshore
The threats are no longer random acts by lone wolves. According to Marlink, a more organised criminal ecosystem has emerged, dominated by access brokers—black-market dealers selling backdoor entry into corporate networks.
This underground economy doubled in value over the past year, driven by a “Cybercrime-as-a-Service” model. Just as shipping relies on logistics partners, cybercriminals now rely on service providers—malware developers, exploit sellers, data launderers—all operating in the digital shadows.
For the maritime sector, this means attackers are more coordinated and business-like than ever.
Preparing for 2025’s Cyber Tempest
Marlink’s forecast for 2025 reads like a cybersecurity disaster movie script. Expect a spike in AI-led attacks, ransomware targeting global supply chains, DDoS attacks leveraging 5G, and assaults on IoT and OT systems critical to ship operations.
The message is clear: vessels are floating data centers, and without airtight defences, they are vulnerable to hijack—not just physically, but digitally.
To counter this rising tide, the report urges shipping firms to enforce stricter software policies, ramp up endpoint controls, and invest in crew awareness training. Cyber hygiene, once a checklist item, is now a survival imperative.
New Era of Threats
In the cinematic story of maritime cybersecurity, 2024 was the year the villain upped its game—swapping crowbars for code, and boarding parties for bots. As the industry sails into 2025, the stakes are higher than ever.
The good news? Awareness is rising. The tools are improving. And the will to defend is stronger than before.
But in this battle, there are no intermissions. The script is still being written, and the only way to stay afloat is to stay ahead.
Because in the cyber seas, it’s not the size of the ship, but the strength of its digital defences that will determine who sinks—and who sails.
