An Adaptive, Situation-Based Risk Assessment and Security Enforcement Framework for the Maritime Sector

Area of Science:

• Maritime Security
• Risk Management
• Cyber-Physical Systems

Background:

• Maritime environments are dynamic, with constantly changing risks and threat exposures.
• Traditional risk mitigation often relies on static assessments, leading to inefficient or inadequate security controls.
• The need for adaptive, situation-specific security mechanisms in maritime operations is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate an adaptive security framework for dynamic risk assessment and policy enforcement in maritime settings.
• To enhance maritime security by integrating situational awareness into risk evaluation and control deployment.
• To improve the cost-efficiency and applicability of security measures in dynamic maritime processes.

Main Methods:

• Extended the maritime-specific risk assessment methodology, MITIGATE, to incorporate situational factors for dynamic risk estimation.
• Integrated DynSMAUG, a situation-driven security management system, for adaptive security policy deployment.
• Validated the framework using a maritime cargo transfer service scenario, simulating various systems and situations.

Main Results:

• The proposed framework effectively assesses dynamic risks on a per-situation basis.
• Automated enforcement of adaptive security controls tailored to specific maritime situations was demonstrated.
• The system provides fine-grained, situation-specific risk estimations and security policy implementation.

Conclusions:

• The adaptive security framework offers a significant improvement over static, situation-agnostic approaches.
• Dynamic risk assessment and adaptive security control lead to more cost-efficient and applicable security solutions.
• This approach enhances maritime security by responding dynamically to evolving threats and environmental changes.