PIRACY,
cybercrime and
the
salvage challenges posed by mega ships are among the risks facing
shipping in an Allianz report on the sector, reports Britain's Guardian
newspaper.
The
2016 Safety and Shipping review points to the potential risk of pirates using
cybercrime to target vessels and warns that the industry needs to protect
itself against this threat.
"There
are indications pirates may be abusing holes in cyber security to attack
specific targets," the report says.
It
points to cyber security incidents including one in which hackers infiltrated
cyber systems in a port to locate specific containers loaded with illegal
drugs.
However,
it also cites a separate cyber-risk information paper stating that the
"risk of a loss to a ship as a result of cyber disruption is foreseeable,
but is not yet a reality".
More
than 3,000 actual and attempted pirate attacks occurred in the last decade,
with more than 400 attacks recorded each year between 2009 and 2011.
The
number of incidents recorded by the ICC/International Maritime Bureau
last year represented a 45 per cent drop on 2010 but there was a slight rise
last year with one more incident than was recorded in 2014.
The
location of piracy has also changed in recent years. Between 2010 and 2011 a
third of all recorded incidents were in Somalia.
In
the same period, 90 incidents were attributed to Somali pirates in the Gulf of
Aden. Last year, not a single attack or attempt was recorded in these waters,
which the report puts down to the efforts of international navies operating
there.
Conversely,
the number of incidents has increased dramatically in Indonesia from 40 in 2010
to 108 last year. Vietnam has also seen a rise in piracy, with 27 incidents
recorded last year compared to just 12 six years ago.
Although
the number of incidents decreased in Nigeria (from 19 in 2010 to 14 last
year), the report says this may be due to incidents going unreported and warns
that the country's coast remains a "hotspot for violent piracy".
And
it isn't just external risks that are facing the industry.
The
cargo-carrying capacity of containers has increased by over 70 per cent in the
past decade and the report warns that such "mega ships" could pose
major financial losses and salvage difficulties should a shipping incident
occur.
Hurricanes
and other weather events were a contributing factor in at least three of the
five largest vessels lost in 2015, including bulk carrier Los Llanitos, which ran
aground off the Mexican coast during Hurricane Patricia, and the sinking
of the El Faro off the coast of the Bahamas with the loss of all crew.
Source
: HKSG.