Cybersecurity for maritime autonomous surface ship (MASS) swarm operations

海上自主水面舰艇(MASS)依靠各种复杂的船上部件进行导航、操纵、燃料管理和其他操作。在外部，大型船舶必须与蜂拥而至的邻居通信，以协调移动并发送或接收关键任务参数。安全、可靠和高效的通信主干支撑着所有大规模行动，这为寻求窃取数据、注入错误命令或使船只瘫痪的攻击者提供了一个有吸引力的目标。因此，必须保护大众通信的机密性和完整性，使其免受当前和未来的威胁，包括来自量子计算机的攻击。为了应对量子计算带来的威胁，后量子密码学(PQC)领域的研究人员正在创造量子抵抗算法，但PQC的广泛采用存在着巨大的障碍，其中最重要的是计算和空间效率低下。与经典密码学方案相比，PQC方案使用更大的密钥长度，并且需要更多的时钟周期来进行计算。此外，目前的公钥基础设施(PKI)实施不支持使用PQC方案。该项目专注于海运业的网络安全，这是新加坡和英国的传统重点运输部门-网络和运输都是这次资金竞争的关键重点领域。此应用程序符合《2050海事战略》第6.3节规定的英国作为自主解决方案和网络安全世界领导者的雄心。该项目的目标是开发实用的PQC通信安全解决方案以确保大众通信安全，并在项目开始后24个月内通过最终用户演示将适用于海上自主水面舰艇(MASS)的网络安全解决方案推向市场，显示我们对该项目的商业利用的承诺。该项目代表着纳税人资金的价值，建立在我们目前的HAZID从TRL3到TRL7的基础上，并在36个月内拥有商业可销售的网络安全产品。AO正在寻求风险投资，以进一步设计和开发企业解决方案，例如TRL 8/9\。这项下一代技术寻求大幅增强围绕安全和已部署的物联网平台的现有标准-帮助降低日益增长的网络威胁的风险，并通过集群运营释放重大新的商业机会。例如，Microsec已经为IEC62443和TR64标准做出了贡献，并将致力于通过新的PQC技术做到这一点。

Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) rely on a diverse and complex array of onboard components for navigation, steering, fuel management, and other operations. Externally, MASS vessels must communicate with swarm neighbours to coordinate movement and send or receive critical mission parameters. A secure, reliable, and efficient communication backbone underpins all MASS operations, which presents an attractive target for attackers seeking to steal data, inject false commands or disable the vessels. As such, it is imperative that the confidentiality and integrity of MASS communications be protected against current and future threats, including attacks from quantum computers.To address the threats posed by quantum computing, researchers in the field of Post Quantum Cryptography (PQC) are creating quantum-resistant algorithms but there are significant barriers to the widespread adoption of PQC, the most significant of which are computational and space inefficiency. In contrast to classical cryptography schemes, PQC schemes use larger key sizes and require more clock cycles for computation. In addition, current Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) implementations do not support the use of PQC schemes.This project is focused on Cybersecurity within the maritime industry, a traditional focus transport sector for both Singapore and the UK - both cyber and transport are key focus areas for this funding competition. This application aligns with the funding scope and delivers on the UK's ambitions under the Maritime 2050 Strategy, section 6.3 as a world leader in autonomous solutions and cyber-security.The aim of this project is to develop a practical PQC communication security solution to secure MASS communications and to bring a cyber security solution for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) swarms to market within 24 months of the start of the project with end-user demonstrations, demonstrating our commitment to commercial exploitation of this project.This project represents value for taxpayer money, building on our current HAZID from TRL3 to TRL7 and having a commercially saleable Cyber security product in the market within 36 months. AO is seeking venture funding to further engineer and develop an enterprise solution, e.g., TRL 8/9\.This next-generation technology seeks to substantially enhance the existing standards around security and deployed IoT platforms - helping to de-risk the growing cyber threat and to unlock significant new commercial opportunities through swarm operations. e.g., Microsec has contributed to IEC62443 and TR64 standards and will aim to do so with the new PQC technology as well.