Singtel, Inmarsat to strengthen global maritime cyber security capabilities

Singapore's telecom giant Singtel and Inmarsat have entered into a strategic partnership to enhance maritime cyber security using Trustwave's Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution, announced the two parties in a joint press release on Wednesday.

Singtel's cyber security arm Trustwave will provide the software based UTM service to be integrated with Inmarsat hardware onboard ships, to protect data and reduce cyber risk for maritime companies.

The UTM service offers a suite of cyber security defences, such as advance firewall, anti-virus, intrusion prevention and web-filtering, which is backed by global round-the-clock support.

Singtel and Inmarsat plan to launch the new maritime cyber security service in the second half of 2016, according to the press release.

Andrew Lim, Managing Director, Business Group, Group Enterprise at Singtel, said the partnership with Inmarsat marks the first phase in rolling out Singtel cyber security services for Inmarsat, and it will provide maritime companies with a cyber security solution to meet rapidly evolving cyber threats globally.

"This new partnership supports our commitment to the market and elevates the benchmark for maritime cyber security," commented Gary Gagnon, Senior Vice President Global Cyber Security, Inmarsat.

Shipping still moves about 90 percent of the world's trade, hence the maritime industry is a significant backbone of the global supply chain. Ronald Spithout, President Inmarsat Maritime, noted that the landscape of shipping industry is moving from traditional shipping into the ship intelligence era, and threat of cyber attacks have never been more real.

"Risks from malicious attacks and unlawful access to a ship's intelligence, its system infrastructure and networks cannot be ignored, and the shipping industry needs to take action," Ronald Spithout added. Enditem