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Ports are a vital part of a nation's maritime transportation system. Many of a nation’s ports, including the waterways and facilities c o n ne c t i ng t hem, are complicated elements that integrate water, railway, road, and even airborne transportation modes.

Por t security refers to the defense, law and treaty enforcement, and counterterrorism activities that fall within the maritime domain. Port security includes the protection of the actual seaport, the protection and inspection of the cargo moving through the ports, and maritime security.

The requirement of maritime security has increased in recent times. Since terrorists and pirates have started using the marine route to cause greater levels of damage to the society, it becomes necessary that the countries try and incorporate a systematic law that will help to preserve the security of ports and overall marine areas.

The reason that ports and shipping activity are so difficult to secure lies primarily in their topography. Ports are typically large, asymmetrical activities dispersed over hundreds of acres of land and water so that they can simultaneously accommodate ship, truck and rail traffic, petroleum product/ liquid offload, storage or piping, and container storage. Could be argued that Ports are the most complex security environments of all border entry points. Because not only are they potions of entry for people, they can arrive unannounced by ship yards or pleasure boats, and already entered your border before you had the opportunity to challenge them. They are also multi-dimensional. Not only you have to manage the land side of the border and surface vessels, you also have to secure your underwater environment and increasingly aerospace around the port.

Ports are in fact an international border, for example, when a ship comes to a port, you have a temporary land border essentially between the last port that ship was in and the port in which the ship was calling. The security of that ship and the risks associated with that ship are impacted by the security conditions in the last port or ports that it came from. This interwoven level of risk and concern is inherent port security, also because of the multinational nature of port security. Another example is that an experienced port security expert can look at almost any ship calling at port that is on an international voyage, within five minutes or so, he or she could probably associate of the 20 different nationalities to that ship, either be the crew the owners, the flag of registry, the operating company, the ports that it has been to/ is going to and cargo origination, it’s an inherently multinational business and that adds to the complexity.

Port security is vital because marine transport is a very thriving and extensively used form of conveyance, especially for cargo transportation. Since the cargo containers could be used inappropriately, it becomes important that proper monitoring and inspection of the transferred cargo is carried out. The importance of maritime security can be further elaborated as follows:

l  Ports are busy areas and are spread over a very large area. This would mean that certain areas of the ports can be inaccessible all the time as far as patrolling is concerned, therefore could lead to stealing of cargo from the cargo containers. It could also involve the smuggling of weapons and arsenal into a country and issues of stowage and illegal immigration. Port security helps to solve these problems of inaccessibility and thereby reduces the cargo pilferage that takes place.

l  Since maritime security is also included in port security measures, it will help to safeguard the interests of ships in dangerous and conflicted waters. This factor is extremely important when ships enter into water areas where piracy abounds. Effective maritime security thus accounts for adequate counter piracy measures.

l  Oil cargo is carried extensively in the oceanic areas. If attacks from pirates and terrorists cause oil spill or even worse, light up the entire oil tanker, it could cause a major disaster with respect to the environment, resources, and security of countries. Maritime security attempts to block any such activities that could be carried out.

Port security is vital because marine transport, especially cargo transportation, is a thriving industry that requires diligent monitoring and inspection of transferred cargo. 90% of the worlds cargo, 25% of oil is transported by sea. Making ports and harbors terminals of global economic hubs you can do a great deal of damage to countries’ national interests by targeting it’s ports.

Security risks related to ports usually focus on either the physical security of the port itself, or security risks within the maritime supply chain.

Port security includes the protection and inspection of cargo moving through ports through security guards, video surveillance, alarm systems, and more.

Threats

l  Theft. To ensure that cargo theft does not take place, physical port security risk management practices are put into place. This includes the employment of a security director and crisis leadership, and physical barriers such as CCTV cameras and adequate lighting at the port.

l  Sabotage. Vessels calling at ports are susceptible to acts of sabotage. If maritime sabotage does occur, this can have serious effects on commercial shipping and maritime transportation networks. Sabotage attacks and terrorism against shipping, ports, and terminals aim to threaten vessel missions and the seas’ safety.

In 2019, amid rising tensions between the US and Iran, sabotage attacks on four commercial vessels off the coast of the UAE’s Fujairah port raised questions about maritime security in the Gulf.

l  Smuggling. Smuggling at sea has been a problem for years. In recent years, port staff and port security have played a major role in the smuggling of illegal material such as drugs. The Port of Rotterdam has a specialized team of divers, the Dutch Customs Diving Team (CDT), whose purpose is to find smuggled drugs.

l  Insider threat. One port security compromise incident occurred between 2011 and 2013, in which case is an organized criminal group were able to use an insider to get access to data specifically the terminal operating system and other cargo related systems for two years undetected. They use that to facilitate cargo theft and conduct narcotics trafficking. Incidents like this happen all around the world overtime, the way to address that is to accept the reality. “There’s no single easy solution.” Port security professionals have to develop and implement very tight cyber security controls. Insider threat is going to be focus primarily not exclusively on cyber. Make sure there are no generic passwords or logins. Exploit the potential within limits of each countries legal framework, see if there is the ability to track when and how long people access to your systems. Are they logging in at odd times or are they accessing systems that they really don’t have a reason/authorization? Combine with proper information security awareness education and information security training. Also combine with vetting, keep in mind that vetting cannot be a “one time event”. It had to be periodic, appropriate and continuous, so that people’s background and changes in behavior can be monitored.

l  Sub-surfers infiltration threat. There are different ways of approach when dealing with subsurface infiltration. The technology in this area is expanding fairly quickly. Having technology in place that engages in anomaly detection is one of the things we can start thinking. It is also good to use different technologies like underwater cameras, specialized Sonars, and products to investigate further underwater spaces like subsurface drones. Another area which is fairly important is the focus on underwater mapping. You need to have a baseline and understanding of what the bottom of the port and the channels look like. Conduct underwater infiltration risk assessment based on mapping findings.

l  Cyber security and the blurry lines between Physical security and Cyber security. Access control systems are increasing tied to databases of employees, visitors, contractors. As a result, any cyber breach of the database results in deleting or modifying personal information, which in fact could affect the access control process of the port. Access controls typically are under the security managers’ scope of work (SOW) or the facility security officers’ scope of work (SOW), but cyber security can also have an impact on that. Cargo theft and smuggling can be facilitated by the manipulation of information within a terminal operating system. The links between physical and cyber are real and they can affect each other. The challenge is that cyber security role is often handled by IT department. However port facility security officer typically has a background of military or law-enforcement, with a strong foundation in physical and operational security, who often don’t have that background in cybersecurity. While the people involved in cyber security don’t necessarily have a strong foundation or background in physical security. So it is important for port security operation to make those two different disciplines work together, since they do affect each other.

With ports being large, international hubs with high volumes of shipments, and access to new markets, smuggling at ports is a common occurrence and a focus for port security.

I want to re-emphasize the that ports need to be viewed as both targets and conduits. The enterprise risk management or the security program needs to look at the port not just as a target but also a conduit for both legitimate and potentially malicious activity.

Supply chain security program also needs to be built into security programs, even though in many cases it is voluntary and not mandatory and controlled. The issue of ports as conduits is the intermodal conductivity via rail or road. Often times the port security programs are focused on the port itself, little attention is given to its connection to a broader transportation network, as port security professionals are not necessarily responsible for those transportation modes and they may be more or less regulated than the port itself.