Maritime cyber security start-up CyberOwl reports that it has been granted a US patent for the invention of its network security monitoring technology.
The system, created by the company’s Chief Scientist, Professor Siraj Shaikh, is underpinned by research completed at Coventry University’s Institute for Future Transport and Cities, and aims to provide early warning of escalating cybersecurity threats and prioritise those warnings against critical assets in distributed, operational systems.
The invention has since been developed and refined to address the specific cybersecurity pain points of maritime transport and critical national infrastructure systems, and used to create CyberOwl’s Medulla product, which has now been deployed on vessel fleets including Metrostar of Greece.
“With escalating threats and a perpetually growing list of vulnerabilities, the odds are stacked against the asset operator to defend their systems from cyber-attack,” said Professor Shaikh.
“We are constantly looking for advancements in CyberOwl’s technologies that can meaningfully give the advantage back to the asset operator. This latest patent is a testament to our commitment at CyberOwl to keep improving our products and services with cutting-edge research.”
The maritime industry has suffered some high profile digital attacks of late, with container line CMA CGM and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) both victims of malicious cyber actions in recent weeks.