Royal Canadian Navy vessels are increasingly vulnerable to targeted cyberattacks. These can impact the safety and integrity of assets and restrict decision-makers’ ability to use them.

Concordia researchers have secured $1 million in funding from Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) to help tackle these concerns. The funding is a continued investment from the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program to develop solutions for its challenge, Knot Vulnerable: Locking Down Cybersecurity on Naval Vessels.The project is led by Kash Khorasani, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Honorary Concordia University Research Chair in Control of Autonomous Network of Unmanned Systems (Tier 1). He and his team aim to develop new methodologies that defend the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of naval vessels. “We will be looking at means to counter these key, emerging disruptive technologies,” Khorasani says. “This is a challenge the government has recognized requires the development of novel approaches.” 

Swashbuckling pirates and sabotage on the high seas have gone digital. Ransomware has replaced the cutlass. In fact, the entirety of modern conflict has evolved into Fifth Generation Warfare with information and perception as its framework. Often referred to as the "Gray Zone" or "hybrid warfare," the term encompasses cyberattacks, nonviolent economic pressure and disinformation campaigns. It's the weaponization of anything. The threat is massive and echoed by many. Klaus Schwab, Founder & Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – whose October 2019 pandemic tabletop exercise, “Event 201,” and the “SPARS” scenarios accurately predicted a coronavirus – has issued a new warning. During the 2021 WEF Cyber Polygon exercise, Schwab flagged "paying insufficient attention to the freighting scenario of a comprehensive cyberattack, which would bring to a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, and hospital services…the Covid-19 crisis would be seen, in this respect, as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyber-attack."