OT/ICS Security for Ports
& Maritime Infrastructure
The Critical Need: Ports are where cyber meets physical consequence
Modern ports are industrial nerve centres: container yards, quay cranes, fueling terminals, pilotage services and vessel traffic systems all interlock with terminal operating systems (TOS), customs interfaces and cloud services. That convergence brings efficiency - and a new class of cyber-physical risk. A compromised TOS, a spoofed GNSS feed, or an unauthorized vendor session can stop operations, strand ships, cause environmental harm, or trigger national-level supply-chain disruption.
This Shieldworkz playbook translates OT-first security into operational outcomes for ports and maritime operators. It’s built to be practical - not theoretical - showing how to inventory and segment assets, harden navigation resilience, detect OT anomalies, manage vendors, and rehearse recovery so your terminals continue moving cargo under stress.
Why this matters now
Ports are high-value, high-impact targets for several reasons:
High economic cost per hour of disruption-delays cascade through global supply chains.
Broad attack surface-industrial cranes, AGVs, fueling systems, GNSS/AIS, and TOS all provide potential entry points.
Legacy OT devices with limited security are widespread and often maintained by third parties.
Safety and national security stakes-navigation interference, fuel release, or collision risk can quickly escalate beyond commercial loss.
Security programs that treat ports like IT sites miss the point. OT availability, navigation integrity, and safe manual fallback modes are mission-critical. That’s why this playbook focuses on OT-native controls that preserve safety and continuity.
Why you should download this playbook
This playbook delivers actionable, operator-focused guidance you can apply immediately:
Real-world architecture patterns: zoning, IDMZs, one-way flows, and sample segmentation tables tailored to port operations.
Navigation resilience recipes: GNSS/AIS cross-check approaches, spoofing detection, and fallback SOPs that keep vessels safe.
Vendor governance & remote access blueprints: jump-hosts, JIT credentials, session recording and contractual controls.
Detection & monitoring guidance: what telemetry to collect (PLC/HMI, TOS logs, AIS/GNSS), low-noise anomaly models, and alert triage playbooks.
Incident response & island-mode recovery: OT-first playbooks that prioritize safety and phased reintegration.
A prioritized 12-24 month roadmap with budget buckets and measurable KPIs for boards.
If you’re accountable for uptime, safety, or compliance at a port terminal, this playbook gives you a clear, prioritized path from discovery to resilience without overpromising or breaking operations.
Key takeaways from the playbook
Inventory first, always. A complete OT asset register is the single highest-return activity - it informs segmentation, monitoring, and vendor policy.
Segment aggressively, mediate explicitly. Logical and physical zones plus an Industrial DMZ reduce blast radius and simplify detection.
Protect navigation integrity. GNSS/AIS spoofing and jamming are real risks - multi-source validation (INS, radar, AIS cross-checks) and SOPs for degraded navigation must be in place.
Vendor access is the top pivot risk. Replace always-on VPNs with bastions, JIT credentials, MFA, and mandatory session recording.
Detect OT anomalies, not noise. Focus on high-impact behaviors (unauthorised crane commands, unusual AGV paths, TOS-to-PLC writes) and map alerts to safety playbooks.
Practice island-mode operations. Terminals must be able to operate safely in a degraded or offline state for a limited window - plan, test, and measure it.
Measure what executives care about. KPIs like % assets inventoried, MTTD for safety-critical anomalies, % vendor sessions audited, and RTO for critical services translate security into business value.
How Shieldworkz helps ports and maritime operators
Shieldworkz brings OT-native expertise and port-sector experience together to convert this playbook into capability:
Assess & prioritise: We run rapid discovery and risk workshops to produce a prioritized asset register and a risk map that ranks safety and operational impact - the input for a remediation roadmap with owners and KPIs.
Design resilient architecture: We design segmented topologies, IDMZs, and one-way telemetry flows. For navigation, we deliver GNSS/AIS monitoring baselines, SOPs, and guidance for INS/radar fallback.
Detect & respond OT-first: Deploy passive OT telemetry, protocol-aware detection, and tailored alert-to-playbook mappings so operators and SOCs act with operational context-not alarm fatigue.
Operationalise people & vendors: We implement vendor assurance programs, just-in-time remote access, session recording, and role-based training that rehearses GNSS spoofing, TOS compromise and combined cyber-physical incidents.
Recover & validate: We help create immutable backups, air-gapped restores, validated rollback playbooks and run tabletop and live exercises that prove island-mode and staged reintegration.
Deliverables include a prioritized 12-24 month roadmap, segmentation design, detection tuning packs, vendor contract clauses, GNSS monitoring SOPs, and a board-ready KPI dashboard.
Take action today: download the playbook
Ports cannot treat cybersecurity as an IT afterthought. Download OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure - A Shieldworkz Technical Playbook to get the architecture patterns, detection rules, vendor controls, and recovery playbooks you need to keep terminals running safely under cyber stress.
Fill out the form to receive the playbook and book a complimentary 30-minute scoping call with a Shieldworkz port security specialist. We’ll help you prioritize a pilot that protects your highest-impact assets first.
Download your copy today!
Get our free OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure and make sure you’re covering every critical control in your industrial network
The Critical Need: Ports are where cyber meets physical consequence
Modern ports are industrial nerve centres: container yards, quay cranes, fueling terminals, pilotage services and vessel traffic systems all interlock with terminal operating systems (TOS), customs interfaces and cloud services. That convergence brings efficiency - and a new class of cyber-physical risk. A compromised TOS, a spoofed GNSS feed, or an unauthorized vendor session can stop operations, strand ships, cause environmental harm, or trigger national-level supply-chain disruption.
This Shieldworkz playbook translates OT-first security into operational outcomes for ports and maritime operators. It’s built to be practical - not theoretical - showing how to inventory and segment assets, harden navigation resilience, detect OT anomalies, manage vendors, and rehearse recovery so your terminals continue moving cargo under stress.
Why this matters now
Ports are high-value, high-impact targets for several reasons:
High economic cost per hour of disruption-delays cascade through global supply chains.
Broad attack surface-industrial cranes, AGVs, fueling systems, GNSS/AIS, and TOS all provide potential entry points.
Legacy OT devices with limited security are widespread and often maintained by third parties.
Safety and national security stakes-navigation interference, fuel release, or collision risk can quickly escalate beyond commercial loss.
Security programs that treat ports like IT sites miss the point. OT availability, navigation integrity, and safe manual fallback modes are mission-critical. That’s why this playbook focuses on OT-native controls that preserve safety and continuity.
Why you should download this playbook
This playbook delivers actionable, operator-focused guidance you can apply immediately:
Real-world architecture patterns: zoning, IDMZs, one-way flows, and sample segmentation tables tailored to port operations.
Navigation resilience recipes: GNSS/AIS cross-check approaches, spoofing detection, and fallback SOPs that keep vessels safe.
Vendor governance & remote access blueprints: jump-hosts, JIT credentials, session recording and contractual controls.
Detection & monitoring guidance: what telemetry to collect (PLC/HMI, TOS logs, AIS/GNSS), low-noise anomaly models, and alert triage playbooks.
Incident response & island-mode recovery: OT-first playbooks that prioritize safety and phased reintegration.
A prioritized 12-24 month roadmap with budget buckets and measurable KPIs for boards.
If you’re accountable for uptime, safety, or compliance at a port terminal, this playbook gives you a clear, prioritized path from discovery to resilience without overpromising or breaking operations.
Key takeaways from the playbook
Inventory first, always. A complete OT asset register is the single highest-return activity - it informs segmentation, monitoring, and vendor policy.
Segment aggressively, mediate explicitly. Logical and physical zones plus an Industrial DMZ reduce blast radius and simplify detection.
Protect navigation integrity. GNSS/AIS spoofing and jamming are real risks - multi-source validation (INS, radar, AIS cross-checks) and SOPs for degraded navigation must be in place.
Vendor access is the top pivot risk. Replace always-on VPNs with bastions, JIT credentials, MFA, and mandatory session recording.
Detect OT anomalies, not noise. Focus on high-impact behaviors (unauthorised crane commands, unusual AGV paths, TOS-to-PLC writes) and map alerts to safety playbooks.
Practice island-mode operations. Terminals must be able to operate safely in a degraded or offline state for a limited window - plan, test, and measure it.
Measure what executives care about. KPIs like % assets inventoried, MTTD for safety-critical anomalies, % vendor sessions audited, and RTO for critical services translate security into business value.
How Shieldworkz helps ports and maritime operators
Shieldworkz brings OT-native expertise and port-sector experience together to convert this playbook into capability:
Assess & prioritise: We run rapid discovery and risk workshops to produce a prioritized asset register and a risk map that ranks safety and operational impact - the input for a remediation roadmap with owners and KPIs.
Design resilient architecture: We design segmented topologies, IDMZs, and one-way telemetry flows. For navigation, we deliver GNSS/AIS monitoring baselines, SOPs, and guidance for INS/radar fallback.
Detect & respond OT-first: Deploy passive OT telemetry, protocol-aware detection, and tailored alert-to-playbook mappings so operators and SOCs act with operational context-not alarm fatigue.
Operationalise people & vendors: We implement vendor assurance programs, just-in-time remote access, session recording, and role-based training that rehearses GNSS spoofing, TOS compromise and combined cyber-physical incidents.
Recover & validate: We help create immutable backups, air-gapped restores, validated rollback playbooks and run tabletop and live exercises that prove island-mode and staged reintegration.
Deliverables include a prioritized 12-24 month roadmap, segmentation design, detection tuning packs, vendor contract clauses, GNSS monitoring SOPs, and a board-ready KPI dashboard.
Take action today: download the playbook
Ports cannot treat cybersecurity as an IT afterthought. Download OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure - A Shieldworkz Technical Playbook to get the architecture patterns, detection rules, vendor controls, and recovery playbooks you need to keep terminals running safely under cyber stress.
Fill out the form to receive the playbook and book a complimentary 30-minute scoping call with a Shieldworkz port security specialist. We’ll help you prioritize a pilot that protects your highest-impact assets first.
Download your copy today!
Get our free OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure and make sure you’re covering every critical control in your industrial network
The Critical Need: Ports are where cyber meets physical consequence
Modern ports are industrial nerve centres: container yards, quay cranes, fueling terminals, pilotage services and vessel traffic systems all interlock with terminal operating systems (TOS), customs interfaces and cloud services. That convergence brings efficiency - and a new class of cyber-physical risk. A compromised TOS, a spoofed GNSS feed, or an unauthorized vendor session can stop operations, strand ships, cause environmental harm, or trigger national-level supply-chain disruption.
This Shieldworkz playbook translates OT-first security into operational outcomes for ports and maritime operators. It’s built to be practical - not theoretical - showing how to inventory and segment assets, harden navigation resilience, detect OT anomalies, manage vendors, and rehearse recovery so your terminals continue moving cargo under stress.
Why this matters now
Ports are high-value, high-impact targets for several reasons:
High economic cost per hour of disruption-delays cascade through global supply chains.
Broad attack surface-industrial cranes, AGVs, fueling systems, GNSS/AIS, and TOS all provide potential entry points.
Legacy OT devices with limited security are widespread and often maintained by third parties.
Safety and national security stakes-navigation interference, fuel release, or collision risk can quickly escalate beyond commercial loss.
Security programs that treat ports like IT sites miss the point. OT availability, navigation integrity, and safe manual fallback modes are mission-critical. That’s why this playbook focuses on OT-native controls that preserve safety and continuity.
Why you should download this playbook
This playbook delivers actionable, operator-focused guidance you can apply immediately:
Real-world architecture patterns: zoning, IDMZs, one-way flows, and sample segmentation tables tailored to port operations.
Navigation resilience recipes: GNSS/AIS cross-check approaches, spoofing detection, and fallback SOPs that keep vessels safe.
Vendor governance & remote access blueprints: jump-hosts, JIT credentials, session recording and contractual controls.
Detection & monitoring guidance: what telemetry to collect (PLC/HMI, TOS logs, AIS/GNSS), low-noise anomaly models, and alert triage playbooks.
Incident response & island-mode recovery: OT-first playbooks that prioritize safety and phased reintegration.
A prioritized 12-24 month roadmap with budget buckets and measurable KPIs for boards.
If you’re accountable for uptime, safety, or compliance at a port terminal, this playbook gives you a clear, prioritized path from discovery to resilience without overpromising or breaking operations.
Key takeaways from the playbook
Inventory first, always. A complete OT asset register is the single highest-return activity - it informs segmentation, monitoring, and vendor policy.
Segment aggressively, mediate explicitly. Logical and physical zones plus an Industrial DMZ reduce blast radius and simplify detection.
Protect navigation integrity. GNSS/AIS spoofing and jamming are real risks - multi-source validation (INS, radar, AIS cross-checks) and SOPs for degraded navigation must be in place.
Vendor access is the top pivot risk. Replace always-on VPNs with bastions, JIT credentials, MFA, and mandatory session recording.
Detect OT anomalies, not noise. Focus on high-impact behaviors (unauthorised crane commands, unusual AGV paths, TOS-to-PLC writes) and map alerts to safety playbooks.
Practice island-mode operations. Terminals must be able to operate safely in a degraded or offline state for a limited window - plan, test, and measure it.
Measure what executives care about. KPIs like % assets inventoried, MTTD for safety-critical anomalies, % vendor sessions audited, and RTO for critical services translate security into business value.
How Shieldworkz helps ports and maritime operators
Shieldworkz brings OT-native expertise and port-sector experience together to convert this playbook into capability:
Assess & prioritise: We run rapid discovery and risk workshops to produce a prioritized asset register and a risk map that ranks safety and operational impact - the input for a remediation roadmap with owners and KPIs.
Design resilient architecture: We design segmented topologies, IDMZs, and one-way telemetry flows. For navigation, we deliver GNSS/AIS monitoring baselines, SOPs, and guidance for INS/radar fallback.
Detect & respond OT-first: Deploy passive OT telemetry, protocol-aware detection, and tailored alert-to-playbook mappings so operators and SOCs act with operational context-not alarm fatigue.
Operationalise people & vendors: We implement vendor assurance programs, just-in-time remote access, session recording, and role-based training that rehearses GNSS spoofing, TOS compromise and combined cyber-physical incidents.
Recover & validate: We help create immutable backups, air-gapped restores, validated rollback playbooks and run tabletop and live exercises that prove island-mode and staged reintegration.
Deliverables include a prioritized 12-24 month roadmap, segmentation design, detection tuning packs, vendor contract clauses, GNSS monitoring SOPs, and a board-ready KPI dashboard.
Take action today: download the playbook
Ports cannot treat cybersecurity as an IT afterthought. Download OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure - A Shieldworkz Technical Playbook to get the architecture patterns, detection rules, vendor controls, and recovery playbooks you need to keep terminals running safely under cyber stress.
Fill out the form to receive the playbook and book a complimentary 30-minute scoping call with a Shieldworkz port security specialist. We’ll help you prioritize a pilot that protects your highest-impact assets first.
Download your copy today!
Get our free OT/ICS Security for Ports & Maritime Infrastructure and make sure you’re covering every critical control in your industrial network
