Hacker time Cyber-attacks spell trouble on the seas

Ships being taken over remotely by hackers and made to crash is a scenario made in Hollywood.

- By Miranda Bryant OSLO

But in a security operations room in Oslo, just a few metres from the sparkling fjord and its tourist boats, floating saunas and plucky bathers, maritime cyber experts say that not only is it technically possible, but they are poised for it to happen.

"We are pretty sure that it will happen sooner or later, so that is what we are looking for," said Øystein Brekke-Sanderud, a senior analyst at the Nordic Maritime Cyber Resilience Centre (Norma Cyber). On the wall behind him is a live map of the ships the centre monitors and screens full of graphs and code.

In an unstable world, shipping, ports and terminals are taking on enormous strategic importance as targets for espionage and destabilising infrastructure. This is particularly relevant in the Nordic countries, which share land and sea borders with Russia.

Finland and Sweden are now Nato members and all countries are beefing up their defence capabilities amid hybrid attacks and rising fear of war.