Cyber, a particular field of naval thought

[dufus]

 

In 2019, for the first time, the annual DefCon conference – now in its 27th edition – included an area called “Hack the Sea”, dedicated to cybersecurity issues in the maritime sector. Such events highlight the growing importance of the cyber issue for sea-related sectors (military, energy, fishery, transportation, etc.) where the ever-increasing integration of communicating systems into naval platforms has given birth to “cyber-at-sea”.

 

This vision extends to both the civilian and the military maritime domains, as ships must constantly transmit and receive data, over both long and short distances. While the problem of naval communications is far from new, it has undergone a major change in recent years with the growing importance of networked combat capabilities, at the level of both naval groups and each vessel individually. These communication challenges are now included in the cyberspace domain, coming with both new capabilities and new threats.

 

The aim here is to consider cyberspace in a broad sense, as a particular domain of combat within the maritime space, and also as a technological sector that includes autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence and connected devices. All these technologies rely on data exchanges – permanent or not – among several platforms. In this sense, many current or prospective technological developments fall within the definition of cyber within the armed forces. The announcement of the commissioning of 1,200 drones in 2030 by the French Navy Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Prazuck, for example, requires considering the related cybersecurity issues as one of the core elements of their integration within Navy units. And even beyond the integration of technologies within ships, the question of integrating the cyber domain into naval strategy is all the more relevant because, while some elements seem similar, others are opening up new challenges.

 

Cyber-at-Sea: the challenges of technological integration

 

Integrating a cyber layer into sea objects moving above and under water is a much greater technological and economic challenge than deploying telecommunication networks ashore. The use of cyber technologies onshore has grown exponentially over the past few years, thanks to major advances in logistics linked to high-speed networks and the growing popularity of appropriate terminals. In parts of the world, such as Africa, mobile broadband has enabled the widespread use of cyberspace. In the space of ten years, from 2007 to 2017, the proportion of the world's population using the Internet increased from 20 % to nearly 50 %, in line with mobile broadband subscriptions (from 4 % to 62 % over the same period), according to the UN . Networks (3G, 4G and soon 5G), terminals, telephones and tablets have enabled this global expansion – but their promise of optimal and continuous coverage is based on installing fixed infrastructure at relatively short intervals.

 

Thus, broadband telephone base stations have emission radii ranging from a few hundred meters to around 30 kilometers, which imposes a relatively tight mesh of the territories. Other wireless remote connection protocols are also limited in reach: WiFi (IEEE 802.11 standard) has a range of a few hundred meters, WiMAX (IEEE 802.16) – about 10 kilometers, ZigBee (IEEE 802.15) – about 10 meters.

 

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