Survey and Future Trends for Cybersecurity in Maritime and Port Sectors: A Discrete Event Systems Perspective

With the development and widespread application of information technology, cybersecurity has become a focal point in all industry sectors. The maritime sector is no exception, with both physical and cyber threats. This survey first highlights, from a system engineering and information technology perspective, the specific architectures of on-vessel and in-port systems, as well as the communication equipment connecting them. Subsequently, cyber attacks in maritime and port domains and their potential consequences are described from various angles. Examples of real cases of cyber attacks are also reported. An overview of current key techniques used in vulnerability analysis, attack detection, and security protection is proposed before discussing cybersecurity issues in the maritime and port sectors from the particular perspective of discrete event systems. Various systems used in maritime and port domains are modeled as automata or Petri nets. Some analysis, detection, and protection approaches are then proposed to illustrate the potential of discrete event systems in this domain.