(ROTTERDAM, Netherlands) — Data and communications solutions company GTMaritime has won the 2019 Smart4Sea Cybersecurity Award, after a public vote recognized GTMailPlus as the product making the most noteworthy contribution to cybersecurity in shipping this year.
The award goes to the organization demonstrating a significant achievement, breakthrough or contribution to any aspect of cybersecurity. GTMailPlus includes a host of security applications as standard, including advanced threat protection, anti-phishing and continuity to guard against the ever-increasing threat from cyberattack faced by ships at sea.
Collecting the award at a ceremony during Europort 2019 in Rotterdam, GTMaritime Head of Operations Jamie Jones said: “It is known that as many as 72 percent of shipowners have been victims of a cyber-related incident in the last 12 months and cyberthreats can have very real consequences – extortion and financial loss being in some respects the least damaging outcome. Modern ships depend on computers more and more for safe operation.”
He added: “We are immensely proud of this recognition, which really goes to our team of developers and other staff who strive every day to stay one step ahead of hackers.”
In the past six months, GTMaritime services have stopped more than 59,500 malware attacks which were unknown to standard antivirus services and halted more than 68,000 known viruses in their tracks. They have also prevented more than 200,000 spam messages clogging up onboard inboxes
With over 20 years of maritime communications experience, the GTMaritime products used to safeguard onboard systems from malicious code are on board some 5,600 vessels, amounting to nearly one in 10 vessels in the global merchant fleet. Many shipowners have been encouraged to act by International Maritime Organization’s decision to bring cybersecurity under the remit of the ISM code from 2021.
