Elcome Bridge Protect
The shipping industry's growing reliance on automation, electronics and digitization increases the danger of cyber "bugs" being introduced into ships and shoreside IT infrastructure. Cyber attacks in the maritime industry have risen by over 900 percent in the last three years, ranging from malware introductions causing navigational errors to full-blown access-denial ransomware. A major point of entry for cyber infections is shipboard downloads from shoreside networks when loading electronic nautical charts or operating system updates using USB sticks or other devices.
Elcome International, one of the world's largest distributors of nautical charts and publications, has created a new secure tool to prevent viruses, malware or corrupted files from being introduced with file downloads on a USB stick into the ship's ECDIS or IBS. The Bridge Protect package includes a special protected USB 3.0 flash drive and custom client software that makes it impossible for infected files to be introduced into the ECDIS and other networked ship's systems when uploading electronic charts and updates.
Bridge Protect is compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems. As per the field tests and lab tests, it is also compatible with all ECDIS brands and models manufactured by Danelec Marine, Furuno, JRC, Kongsberg, Raytheon Anschütz, Simrad and all other models supporting either FAT32 or NTFS file systems.
Elcome Bridge Protect can be incorporated as a part of the Safety Management System stipulated by International Maritime Organization (IMO) Resolution MSC.428(98) and which becomes a mandatory part of the annual verification of the company's Document of Compliance, which came into effect since 1st January 2021.