It’s easy to forget when you’re on dry land that 90 percent of the world’s goods are shipped on boats. While we worry about the cybersecurity of power grids and nuclear missile silos, most of us have never thought about whether the container ships and ports that bring us our clothes, electronics, food—everything—are secured against digital threats.
The April newsletter from maritime cybersecurity consulting firm CyberKeel contained a scary stat. According to a spot check the group conducted, 37 percent of maritime companies with Windows webservers haven’t been keeping up with installing security patches from Microsoft. As a result, more than one-third of these sites are vulnerable to denial of service attacks and certain types of remote access.
Click here to read the full article, which is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture.