Digital Vulnerability and Rapid Technological Change

Global commerce is increasingly operating in world where automation and digitalization are transforming rapidly almost every sector of the economy. While some forms and means of transportation are adopting the new digital tools slowly enough, the total pace of engagement is escalating exponentially.

Gradually, maritime companies are embracing the digital revolution. In fact, digital technology is becoming so important and extensive that many businesses are underestimating the extent to which they are now dependent on it. While the opportunities that occur due to the technological advance are abundant to even mention, so are the vulnerabilities and risks. Those that manage to find the balance will thrive. Otherwise they will themselves left behind by the changing markets and consumer expectations, or even left vulnerable to the growing army of threat actors.

Authorities believe that the criminal activity is being assisted by the speed, convenience and most important by the anonymity that the World Wide Web provides. Consultancy firms believe that the global cost of data breaches alone could exceed $2 trillion by the end of 2018. Criminals are clearly flourishing in the unprecedented access and connectivity the internet provides, as the technology advances.

It’s easy to understand that the risks inherited by the accelerated progress of the digital economy are a primary concern that it would increase cost efficiency, collective intelligence and product delivery but it would also augment digital entry points to strategic control centers, information about the commerce and private third-party data. As firms become more and more connected, levels of flexibility are increasingly imposed by the weakest link in the digital supply chain. As such, companies have even less individual control to alleviate their digital risks, making in a way security a communal issue. It is a concerted responsibility where every member in all the supply chains is responsible – not only to their own shareholders, but also to their other partners.

The transportation sector values the risks correlated with the digital vulnerability almost as eminently as they do those in the geopolitical circle.

The largest stand-alone risk across all modes of transport is the risk that springs from new and emerging competitors, with expanding competition across all known modes of transportation: sea, land and air. As transportation adopts the technological advancements of the digital age, it must build jointly risk strategies to ensure that all systems in the global value chain are secure and reliable.

A survey conducted by Willis Towers Watson found that the extended economic struggle of modern world have made the shipping sector more prone to risk than other modes of transport. Maritime transport providers perceive several digital risks, in the form of data privacy breaches. But shipping companies have also almost zero protection against the complexities of globalization.

Every mean of transportation could benefit from the development of propulsion technology and more efficient fuels. Currently, ship owners face significant regulatory and technical uncertainty, which is raising the investment risks. Some are using advances in computational fluid dynamics and models to streamline hulls and bow structures to design more efficient propellers in order to achieve roughly the same end.

But amongst all the automatization, the digitalization of business processes, the cascade of emerging technologies and the continuously changing markets and consumer trends, probably the maritime industry’s biggest opportunity lies in the competition for talent. People are the connecting factor between corporate strategy and goal achievement. As technology rapidly evolves, the importance of retaining and retraining the associated skills to manage the systems, tools and assets of the industry will not vanish. Even artificial intelligence and robots will need programmers. Those who have the market intelligence to align the skills of their workforce with emerging technology will have grasped an extremely significant opportunity.