Effects of Malware and Ransomware in Ship's Information System

This research proposal discusses the effects of malware and ransomware in the information and navigation system of ships. It highlights key research areas, current challenges, and solutions to prevent and detect such attacks.

Running head: MALWARE AND RANSOM WARE EFFECTS
EFFECTS OF RANSOM WARE AND MALWARE IN SHIP’S INFORMATION SYSTEM
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Executive Summary
The research proposal is associated with the effects of the malwares and ransom wares in the
information and navigation system of the on board ships. The malware and ransom wares key
research areas have been discussed and the current research challenges in this particular field
have also been stated in the research proposal.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of the topic...................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Malware and ransom ware attack causes and effects in on-board ships (key research areas).....4
Effects and solutions....................................................................................................................6
Current research challenges.............................................................................................................7
Real cyber-attack in on board ship..................................................................................................8
Methodologies used.........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The ransom ware and malware has become one of the most devastating attacks in the
modern day information technology field and this has also created some severe affects in various
industries and organizations. The invasion of the malwares and ransom wares have been known
to the IT industry, and it is also known that these attacks are mainly focused on the various
websites and software applications of a particular type of organization, however, in recent times
the attacks of the malware and ransom wares has started affecting various other fields including
the ships and vessels and their on board navigation and information systems. The report
emphasizes on the various malwares and ransom wares that can affect the on board ships and
vessels and how the navigation and information systems of those ships are affected and damaged
by the malwares. The malwares and ransom wares are generally spread through the internet and
also via various attachments and files (Kim and Kim 2015). The navigation and information
system in a ship is a very important aspect which if disabled may cause the loss of direction of
the ship and in many cases, may cause the ship to sink. Thus this report signifies the various
causes and effects of the malwares and ransom wares with respect to affects in ships and vessels
and also the current research challenges in the respective field of malware attacks.
Background of the topic
The malware can be defined as an unethical and malicious software that is designed by
some unethical personal in order to affect and damage or disrupt the services of a particular
organization. The malwares include various kinds of worms, viruses and spyware which gets into
the victim’s computer and stops the normal functioning of the softwares and hardware and also
in many cases damages some part of the system (Brewer 2016). The ransom ware on the other

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hand can be defined as a similar software which stops the normal functioning of a software or
application and thus demands various kinds of ransoms from the affected clients and until the
ransom is paid, the user cannot use or access any of his important systems or credentials (Garcia-
Perez, Thurlbeck and How 2017). The maritime industry is also vulnerable nowadays to such
cyber threats and many incidents can be referred in this aspect.
Literature review
Malware and ransom ware attack causes and effects in on-board ships (key research areas)
According to Zimba, Wang and Chen 2018, various measures and techniques might be
adopted by the ship’s manager of information expert which might reduce the vulnerability to
such attacks and protect the ship’s information system and the navigation system. The process
includes the use of updated and secured softwares and applications in order to secure the
information technology system in the on-board ships. The anti-virus or anti-malware softwares
that are present in the ships should also be updated and verified (Weckstén et al. 2016). The
ships usually have a specific channel of network and the administrators of that channel network
should restrict the access and use of that network in order to prevent the malwares and ransom
wares. The most important aspect that the ship’s authorities and the crew must keep in mind that
the use of any type of USB drives or external storage devices must be stopped and proper
training must be provided to the crew in case of email attachments and files, by which the most
of malwares and ransom wares are spread. The use of anti-virus applications also plays an
important role in this case and the ship’s information system should be well equipped with such
an application.

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The navigation system is affected by the ransom ware and malware and this can be
avoided by implementing more number of security patches for the system and also by restricting
the use of the navigation system to only trained and responsible crew members. The most
important aspect in terms of the research work is that the more number of challenges are
increasing day by day as because the decryption techniques of the malwares and the ransom
wares are getting tough and complex (Bothur, Zheng and Valli 2017). The methods and tools
used in the decryption of such malwares and ransom wares are also not possible from the ship
itself as because every ship does not have IT professionals who are expert in such processes
especially in the cargo ships. A proper planning of the strengths and vulnerabilities in a ships
network architecture is also needed and proper guidance must be given to the operators in case of
any cyber-security attack. The present monitoring of the entire network system is also needed in
the ships and vessels as because the monitoring will help in prevention of any unauthorized
access.
The use of personal devices connected to the ships mainframe computer system also
makes the ship vulnerable to the malware and ransom ware. The on-board ships usually have
various kinds of digital systems which also control the propulsion and machineries to operate the
ship. The ransom wares also attack the ships and vessels and they intend to lock down the
operating function or important machineries in the ship’s architecture which might stop the
movement of the ship and until the ransom are paid, the attackers do not let the ship to operate or
access any of its machineries (Ristov, Nenadić and Mrvica 2014). The strengths and weakness of
such attack are generally - the strengths of the malwares and the ransom wares and the weakness
can be defined as the loopholes or the vulnerabilities in the ship’s information system. Thus the
use of malware prevention system in the ships information system is very much needed and this

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paper highlights the various prevention and monitoring systems which might help in the
monitoring and the prevention of the attacks.
Effects and solutions
The malwares can affect either any company associated with the shipping industry or
might affect directly the ships. The operational technologies used to operate a ship include the
complex navigation system, which is considered to be the most important piece of technology
used in a ship and also the other information systems. The use of navigation device and system in
a ship in the middle of an ocean is very much important and without the navigation system, the
ship might get lost or in worse cases may crash and sink (Hareide et al. 2018). The causes of
such attack may be the use of outdated or unpatched software and also with the use of various
kinds of unprotected and unsecured flash drives in the system of the ships.
The detection of the ransom ware is possible with the monitoring of the File System
which is known as SSDT. The proposed system monitors the input-output request and their
various attributes like process id and name of the process and any I/O request without proper id
or name is treated as a malware threat to the system. This process can also be used in removing
the malwares and ransom wares by tracking the roots of the problems or files or the requests. The
SSDT instantly shuts down the processes and requests and hence the malware code is entirely
removed. However, it is stated by many people that due to the use of SSDT, the future ransom
ware and malware will have difficulties in avoiding the monitoring procedure. The use of
honeypots in malicious system activity detection is one of the ways to prevent the malware
attacks (Moore 2016). The honeypot system secures the files and folders of a system and attracts
the intruders to attack into the system, while it keeps monitoring for the intrusion and whenever
an intrusion occurs it alerts the user’s system, thus protecting the important credentials. The

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ship’s information system should be adopted with such technologies in order to track the
incoming requests into their communication or information system as because the modern
complex malwares can be prevented or monitored with such tools and techniques
Current research challenges
The current research challenges in this field of malware and ransom ware attacks in the
on-board ships are basically the challenges that are faced in times of malware attacks and ransom
ware attacks in various other information technology fields. The current research in this field is
about how to stop or avoid such attacks and how to make the system less vulnerable to the
malwares and ransom wares. The research challenges also include the process of identifying and
analyzing the appropriate threats and risks in terms of effects on the ship itself as well as the
owner and company of the ship (Jones, Tam and Papadaki 2016). The challenges include the
slow adaptation rate as because the cyber security in shipping industry is not common in nature
and very few employees are aware of such threats. The process of adaptation may be also
regarded as a research challenge as because it is very much difficult to make understand the
complexities of the malware types and their working procedures. The detection of malwares
which generally affects the ships, must be detected so as to gain control over it and this might
also be a research challenge.
The challenges in research can also be stated as the real time information gathering and
analyzing of the malwares that has affected or affecting the current shipping industry. However,
the most important challenge is to find out a process or application which will help the
communication of the ship’s onboard system along with a terrestrial system which will be a real
time one as because the existing system causes delay in the detection and response process of the
malware and ransom wares (Lagouvardou 2018). The ships information system’s connection

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with the terrestrial information system will help in the implementation of the SSDT and
applications like honeypot, which will eventually reduce the chance of such attacks. However,
with the increase in the intrusions of the malwares and the ransom wares in the shipping
industry, the owners and controllers of the ships and vessels must be aware and alert of these
attacks and install necessary measures in their information and navigation system. The research
challenges also include the lack of appropriate management and training of the ship’s employees
as because most of them have very little knowledge of the malware attacks and how to prevent or
avoid them by using secured processes and protocols.
Real cyber-attack in on board ship
In the most recent times, the invasion in the shipping industry is increasing and as a
result many ships and vessels on the sea are getting targeted by the cyber-pirates. The recent
times, an example can be given about a vessel approaching the Gulf of Aden which had a
potential piracy risk as because an on board person was uploading images of the safety measures
in the ship to a social media website and thus exposing the security of the entire ship (Svilicic et
al. 2019). This was possible for the crew due to the unrestricted usage of the satellite connection
to access the internet in the ship. Another incident is that the entire information system of a
vessel was taken down by the cyber pirates and a huge ransom was demanded. These incidents
signifies that the recent maritime industry.
Methodologies used
The data that have been used in this paper is the secondary type of data which is basically
collected from various journals, articles and books and the analysis method is the qualitative
analysis which deals with the theoretical discussion of the various challenges in on-board ships

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during malware or ransom ware attacks and also to analyze the various research work in this
field and the strengths and weaknesses of malware and ransom wares effects on the on-board
ships navigation and information systems (Mihas 2019). The qualitative research can be referred
as the process that deals with the detailed theoretical discussion and analysis. The paper also
deals with the current outstanding research challenges in this aspect of malware attacks.
Conclusion
Thus from the above research proposal it can be concluded that the malwares and the
ransom wares affect the ships information system and the navigation system in various ways and
proper measures and techniques should be adopted in order to avoid such circumstances. The
essential challenges that are faced in the development of monitoring application of the malwares
have been discussed in the proposal and the current challenges in this field like the adaptation
and management challenge has been emphasized. Thus from the research proposal, the important
research questions and the field of work is known and the key research areas in the field of
ransom ware and malware in the ship’s information, communication and navigation system is
also stated. The purpose of this paper is to develop the methods to detect and prevent the
malware and ransom ware attacks. The future perspective of the detection and effects of the
malwares on the ship’s information and navigation system has been discussed and some
prevention and detection methods have also been stated.

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References
Bhandari, R., Mohanty, S.S. and Wylie, J., 2017. Cyber Security the Unknown Threat At Sea.
18-th Annual General Assembly of the International Association of Maritime Universities, p.101.
Bothur, D., Zheng, G. and Valli, C., 2017. A critical analysis of security vulnerabilities and
countermeasures in a smart ship system.
Brewer, R., 2016. Ransomware attacks: detection, prevention and cure. Network Security,
2016(9), pp.5-9.
Csorba, M.J., Ramos de Carvalho, C. and Boff, S., 2017, October. Plain Sailing? Observations
of Cybersecurity and Network Health Problems in Control Systems at Sea. In OTC Brasil.
Offshore Technology Conference.
Earthy, J.V. and Lützhöft, M., 2018. Autonomous ships, ICT and safety management. In
Managing maritime safety (pp. 141-165). Routledge.
Garcia-Perez, A., Thurlbeck, M. and How, E., 2017. Towards cyber security readiness in the
Maritime industry: A knowledge-based approach.
Hareide, O.S., Jøsok, Ø., Lund, M.S., Ostnes, R. and Helkala, K., 2018. Enhancing navigator
competence by demonstrating maritime cyber security. The Journal of Navigation, 71(5),
pp.1025-1039.
Jones, K.D., Tam, K. and Papadaki, M., 2016. Threats and impacts in maritime cyber security.

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Kim, D. and Kim, S., 2015. Design of quantification model for ransom ware prevent. World
Journal of Engineering and Technology, 3(03), p.203.
Lagouvardou, S., 2018. Maritime Cyber Security: concepts, problems and models.
Mihas, P., 2019. Qualitative data analysis. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Mercaldo, F., Nardone, V. and Santone, A., 2016, August. Ransomware inside out. In 2016 11th
International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES) (pp. 628-637). IEEE.
Moore, C., 2016, August. Detecting ransomware with honeypot techniques. In 2016
Cybersecurity and Cyberforensics Conference (CCC) (pp. 77-81). IEEE.
Ristov, P., Nenadić, A. and Mrvica, A., 2014. Security of Computer Systems on Ship. Book of,
p.316.
Shinde, R., Van der Veeken, P., Van Schooten, S. and van den Berg, J., 2016, December.
Svilicic, B., Kamahara, J., Rooks, M. and Yano, Y., 2019. Maritime Cyber Risk Management:
An Experimental Ship Assessment. The Journal of Navigation, 72(5), pp.1108-1120.
Ransomware: Studying transfer and mitigation. In 2016 International Conference on Computing,
Analytics and Security Trends (CAST) (pp. 90-95). IEEE.
Weckstén, M., Frick, J., Sjöström, A. and Järpe, E., 2016, October. A novel method for recovery
from Crypto Ransomware infections. In 2016 2nd IEEE International Conference on Computer
and Communications (ICCC) (pp. 1354-1358). IEEE.

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Zimba, A., Wang, Z. and Chen, H., 2018. Multi-stage crypto ransomware attacks: A new
emerging cyber threat to critical infrastructure and industrial control systems. Ict Express, 4(1),
pp.14-18.