A vessel is the hardest place to run a security program — and the worst place to be wrong.
IT security assumes connectivity, patch windows, and someone to respond. At sea, all three are unreliable. The systems that steer, power, and navigate the ship cannot be taken offline for a maintenance window in the middle of the ocean.
Three constraints that break conventional security at sea.
Detection that phones home is useless mid-ocean.
Cloud-dependent security assumes a link that a vessel may not have for days. Protection has to work fully offline, on the hull.
The control systems predate modern security by decades.
Navigation, propulsion, and cargo systems weren't built to be patched. You protect them by containing what can reach them, not by updating them.
There is no SOC on the bridge.
The crew are mariners, not analysts. Security has to prevent and contain autonomously — an alert that needs an expert to interpret will simply go unanswered.
Contain on the hull. Verify at the boundary. Report when connected.
Every Pelorus engagement reports on the same six metrics.
No vanity numbers. These are the measures a fleet operator, an inspector, and an underwriter actually ask about — and what the published outcome data will cover.
Containment events on the hull
Untrusted executions isolated at the endpoint kernel — counted, logged, and blocked offline.
IT/OT boundary attempts
Crossings attempted vs. stopped at the segmentation boundary between crew systems and vessel OT.
USCG provision status
Provision-by-provision compliance state, maintained inspection-ready at all times.
Crew drill readiness
Cyber casualty drill completion and time-to-response, folded into the existing drill schedule.
Evidence sync integrity
Tamper-evident logs reconciled sea-to-shore with zero loss across connectivity gaps.
Security-attributable downtime
Vessel operational time lost to security controls. Target and expectation: zero. Do no harm.
At sea, security that waits for a connection, a patch, or an analyst is security that isn't there. It has to hold on the hull — or it doesn't hold at all.
Secure the vessel before it leaves the pier.
Three ways in for fleet operators and maritime programs.
Maritime OT brief
The Pelorus method for securing OT at sea. Download and share with the fleet.
Get the brief →Fleet posture review
We assess IT/OT segmentation and offline containment across representative vessels.
Book a review →Pelorus deployment
Scoped rollout of the maritime OT program across your fleet, hull by hull.
Scope deployment →