In traditional terms, “safety” is related to the minimization of “risks” (from navigation) whereas “security”
aims to combat intentional “threats” - although not exclusively - starting with a simple oil spill. In other
words, “security” has as its essential core the threat and the intention to cause damage and, for this very
reason, it is necessary to state its human origin (“threat actors”). Rather, “safety” focuses on the “risk” of
maritime activities, that is, natural or unintended events that have serious consequences and are likely to
materialize (i.e., traditionally, unexpected breakdowns, natural elements, etc.).
Our challenge is to prove that, nowadays, “risk” tends to be reduced to the so-called “natural” situations,
since the conduct of a ship's crew that was exposed to a “danger” or “serious" damage can, in most cases,
must be assumed as a "wilful" (i.e., beyond "negligent") performance for violation - although not
intentionally - of maritime safety rules. If so, it is an "upgrade" of these conducts - considered, until today,
“negligent” – being assumed as "threats" and, therefore, also, a matter of "security".
Also in this field, the prevention and combat (or minimization) of damages resulting from occurrences of
“security” and “safety”, although with different conceptual origins, tend to increasingly overlap and
articulate, in the actions, which is evident when moving towards global connections such as those that result
from the fact that we live in a digitally interconnected world, whether physically or virtually, and thus
permanently retaining its cybersecurity. On the website of the North American company CISA
(Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), created in 2018, it appears that one starts from the
concept of “safety” to go to the one of “security” in a very simple way, stating that: “Being online exposes
us to cyber criminals and others who commit identity theft, fraud, and harassment. Every time we connect
to the Internet-at home, at school, at work, or on our mobile devices, we make decisions that affect our
cybersecurity. Emerging cyber threats require engagement from the entire American community to create
a safer cyber environment-from government and law enforcement to the private sector and, most
importantly, members of the public”. However, it is important to reiterate that it was the cyber threat and,
consequently, cybersecurity, that came to leverage the thesis of the concentric relationship between
"safety" and "security" and that a recent presentation on the repositioning of cyber threats in Operational
Technologies (OT) systems - (Lisbon, at the PwC, on 5 February 2020). Its author (Rafael Maman), an
Israeli expert in the area of cybersecurity who addressed the matter in a personal capacity, mentioned the
following: “Corresponding to a shift in the cyber risk equation: traditional IT risks – data privacy, IP theft,
etc. – are augmented by higher-order risks – to unman life, disruption of critical operations, environmental
disasters, etc.(it should have as a consequence that) governments and industrial enterprises recognise the
importance of OT Security for Critical Infrastructure protection and the risks involved, and initiate proactive
action”.
With this qualitative change in the cyber risk equation, it is increasingly important to identify the
fundamental differences between cybersecurity in IT and OT, in all its dimensions - including the legal one
- precisely because it is in the OT domain that the interdependencies between "safety" and "security" are
more relevant, given that the OT links the cyber world to the physical one. As a direct consequence, the
permanent presence of the risk of cyber-attacks to critical infrastructures and essential services (which
include maritime transport and ports) implies that "security" must always be considered. In our case, the
creation of conditions for safe navigation, in the present times, must always take cyberspace into account
and, therefore, the representative figure that is proposed, consisting of two concentric circles in which the
central one corresponds to “safety”. In this light, Rafael Maman goes even further when considering that
the micro trends of cyber threats present the following evolution: “From “military-grade cyberweapons” to
“industrial-grade ransomware”. What used to be considered cyber warfare weapons used by the armed
forces can now be used to disrupt critical industries and essential services by any actor technologically able
to do it. In Maman’s “The Reshaping Cyber Threat Landscape of Operational Technology”, presentation at
the “Conference organized by the PwC “Cybersecurity - The Challenges of Operational Technology (OT)”,
Lisbon, 5 February 2020.
On the other hand, since the beginning of the century, the vast majority of incidents of appreciable size in
sensitive industries have deliberate attacks (cyber and other), collateral damage from attacks or the poor
functioning of systems as associated causes, not being possible, in most cases, to isolate sources according
to the traditional “safety/security” bipartition or, if possible, it will lose all interest due to the need for an