Samsung Heavy Industries partners with Fortinet for maritime cybersecurity

Samsung Heavy Industries Co has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with cybersecurity provider Fortinet to ensure enhanced maritime cybersecurity for ships. This collaboration will be rooted in designing well-hardened maritime cybersecurity systems to meet the new UR E26 and E27 mandatory requirements from the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS).

The MOU signing ceremony took place at Fortinet Korea's Customer Briefing Center and was attended by representatives from both companies. These included Won-Kyun Cho, Korea Country Manager, and Michael Murphy, APAC Head of Operational Technology and Critical Infrastructure at Fortinet, as well as Jong-Ung Choi, Director of the Autonomous Ship Research Centre, and Kyungwon Bae, Group Manager of the Smart Solution Research Group at Samsung Heavy Industries.

Boasting a strong track record in the shipbuilding and marine business fields, Samsung Heavy Industries has unique technological competencies and turnkey manufacturing capabilities. In addition, being in possession of topside design and construction capabilities, Samsung Heavy Industries stands at the core of maritime development facilities.

IACS implemented changes in April 2022 by adopting UR E26 and E27 to shield ships from cyber threats such as hacking and ransomware and to ensure safe operations of ships. UR E26 focuses on secure integration of Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT) equipment into the vessels network during the design, construction, commissioning, and operational life of the ship. On the other hand, UR E27 aims to ensure system integrity is secured and hardened by third-party equipment suppliers. These new requirements will be applied to newly contracted ships after 1 July 2024.

With this agreement, both Fortinet and Samsung Heavy Industries intend to enhance maritime cybersecurity to comply with the new IACS security regulations. In doing so, they aim to broaden the base of the cybersecurity market and apply future leading technologies in the maritime field including network segmentation and OT protocol-based security services, onshore remote monitoring and control, and autonomous ships.

Fortinet is set to offer support in designing maritime cybersecurity for ships built by Samsung Heavy Industries, that meet the UR E26 and E27 mandatory requirements. The Fortinet OT Security Platform, an extension of enterprise Security Fabric, is designed to protect OT across the entire Purdue model, from sensors to the cloud, ensuring asset and network visibility, network separation, endpoint protection, authentication and permission management for zero trust access, threat detection and defence technology.

Speaking on this development, Jongung Choi, Director of Autonomous Ship Research Center at Samsung Heavy Industries, said, "As cyber-issues on ships increase, cybersecurity is becoming an essential element of ship construction and operation. Samsung Heavy Industries will expand its cybersecurity leadership in the ship manufacturing industry by establishing an innovative system for OT security during ship construction and increasing the cyber resilience of ships through close cooperation with Fortinet."

Michael Murphy, APAC Head of Operational Technology and Critical Infrastructure at Fortinet also commented on this cooperation and said, "Through this cooperation, we will strengthen the global support system and cooperation in the maritime cybersecurity sector. We will actively support Samsung Heavy Industries in securing a technical foundation to comply with the new security regulations. In addition, Fortinet will continue to expand the scope of its OT business and aim to strengthen OT security and digital innovation for the maritime cybersecurity industry."