Also in this Week’s edition:

1. How ChatGPT can infiltrate your Ship? Be Aware!!

2. Marine Pilot Dies in Pilot Ladder Accident While Boarding Cruise Ship

3. Gadget of the week for your next ship (pinky promise, you need this)

4. Book of the week

5. Maritime Contents for you

6. Job Listings for Seafarers.

How ChatGPT can infiltrate your Ship? Be Aware!!

As the maritime industry becomes increasingly digitized, it faces a rising threat from cyberattacks.

Historically, attacks against individual vessels primarily involved jamming and spoofing navigation signals.

However, recent incidents indicate that the threat landscape is expanding, with attackers targeting vessels through various methods, including the use of ransomware.

One noteworthy case involved a cyberattack on DNV's ShipManager software system, impacting approximately 1000 shipping vessels. 

Fortunately, many vessels maintained their offline functionalities, minimizing disruption.

Nonetheless, this attack underscored the potential widespread reach of cyberattacks against vessels and highlighted the financial gains that attackers can achieve.

One tactic commonly employed to compromise vessels is through phishing emails. Phishing emails are a form of social engineering that tricks crew members into clicking on malicious links or downloading harmful content.

These emails are designed to appear legitimate, often personalized to specific crews or ships using information sourced from open platforms like social media.

Phishing emails play a crucial role in maritime cyberattacks, particularly those involving the installation of malicious software, such as ransomware.

Traditionally, the creation of these phishing emails has been a manual process. However, a newly released AI tool is changing the game.

ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a powerful language model capable of generating persuasive and emotionally manipulative phishing emails when prompted.

While ChatGPT was not designed for criminal purposes and has internal safeguards against generating malicious material when directly instructed to do so, attackers have found workarounds.

Attackers leveraging ChatGPT enjoy several benefits. Firstly, the AI tool writes in fluent American English, helping to conceal typical differentiators between legitimate and illegitimate emails, such as typos or unique formatting.

Moreover, ChatGPT offers diverse responses to a single prompt, resulting in individually crafted emails that appear authentic.

But how real is the threat posed by ChatGPT?

A research paper analyzing over 50,000 phishing emails sent to users across 100 countries discovered that professional red teamers achieved a 4.2 percent click rate, while ChatGPT obtained a 2.9 percent click rate. Notably, certain countries, including Sweden, experienced higher click rates with the AI chatbot.

Furthermore, a survey of 1,500 IT decision-makers in North America, the UK, and Australia revealed that 53 percent are concerned about the threat of more convincing phishing emails, with 51 percent expecting a cyberattack supported by ChatGPT within the next year.

Darktrace, in partnership with Censuswide, conducted a survey showing that 73 percent of UK employees are worried about hackers using generative AI to create indistinguishable scam emails.

Additionally, research indicates that ChatGPT has already manipulated individuals into bypassing security measures, such as successfully requesting a TaskRabbit worker to solve a captcha due to a vision impairment.

The threat of phishing emails is further substantiated by a recent study by Darktrace, which reported a 135 percent increase in "novel social engineering attacks" in correspondence with the proliferation of ChatGPT.

These attacks exhibit increased text volume, punctuation, and sentence length but omit links or attachments, demonstrating the evolving nature of phishing tactics.

The maritime industry is not immune to these threats. ChatGPT's extensive knowledge base allows attackers to gather maritime-specific information, such as vessel names or International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations, to craft more convincing emails.

The potential risks to the maritime sector are significant, as the industry operates globally, and any disruption can result in substantial costs.

Vessels affected by cyberattacks may be unable to deliver essential commodities, leading to a ripple effect across industries that rely on raw materials. In some cases, a hacking incident could even result in a vessel grounding on a major trade

Marine Pilot Dies in Pilot Ladder Accident While Boarding Cruise Ship

On the morning of May 5, the cruise ship Diamond Princess was en route to Nagasaki, awaiting the arrival of the pilot.

At approximately 0530, the pilot boat approached, and the pilot began the transfer to the rope ladder in order to board the ship. Tragically, for reasons that are still under investigation, the pilot fell into the water while climbing the ladder.

The crew of the Diamond Princess acted swiftly in response to the incident. They deployed a rescue boat and conducted a search for the pilot.

Despite wearing a life jacket, the pilot was recovered from the water in an unconscious state. Unfortunately, he was pronounced dead two hours later.

The pilot has been identified as Yoshihiro Osuga, a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience in the trade.

Surface conditions were reported to be calm at the time, prompting the Japan Coast Guard to examine the possibility that the motion of the pilot boat may have played a role in the incident. The investigation aims to shed light on the circumstances and contributing factors surrounding this tragic event.

Climbing from a moving pilot boat up the side of a moving ship is an inherently risky task, and accidents involving pilot ladders are not uncommon.

Sadly, every year, marine pilots suffer falls into the water or onto the deck of the pilot boat, with all too many of these incidents resulting in fatal consequences.

The dangers inherent in this aspect of their profession cannot be overstated.

In 2020, the Sandy Hook Pilots Association experienced the loss of two of its members due to pilot ladder falls within a span of less than a year. These distressing incidents serve as painful reminders of the inherent risks faced by marine pilots on a daily basis.

The safety of marine pilots is of utmost importance, and the industry continually strives to enhance protocols and practices to mitigate risks during pilot transfers.

Authorities, organizations, and stakeholders across the maritime sector are committed to working together to improve safety measures and prevent such tragedies from occurring.

Our thoughts go out to the family, friends, and colleagues of Yoshihiro Osuga, as well as the entire maritime community affected by this loss. May this incident serve as a call for renewed efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of marine pilots as they perform their vital role in guiding vessels to their destinations.

Stay safe, and let us all remain vigilant in promoting a culture of safety within the maritime industry.

Gadget of the Week for all Seafarers

Mini Belt Bag

Sign on, Sign off or Shore leave we sailors have to carry various documents like cdc , passport which we have to show to various authorities,

its frustrating i know

and its more frustrating when we have to unzip the heavy bag every time just to show the document.

Here is the hack for you to never frustrate and enjoy the process. This simple small bag below your belt helps you. Zip it unzip it whatever you do its simple and easy because its in front of you and small.

Buy it here

Book I am reading this week

Here’s exactly what this book will show you how to do:

• How To Charge a Lot More Than You Currently Are…
  

• How To Make Your Product So Good, Prospects Find A Way To Pay For It
  

• How To Enhance Your Offer So Much, Prospects Buy Without Hesitating

   

• and so much more…

Found this book here

Contents we have shared this week

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