Cybersecurity at Ports

The 6th Port Logistics Forum, focusing this year on cybersecurity, invited GMV as the leading company in this activity sector. Organized by the Alicante Port Authority (APA) and Distrito Digital, the purpose of these forums is to contribute to creating synergies between local companies and advance in their strategies of innovation.  The event, attended by representatives from the Spanish and local port industry, was opened by Antonio Rodes, General Manager of Sociedad Proyectos Temátics de la Comunidad Valenciana, and closed by Carlos Eleno, Director of the Alicante Port Authority, and Juan Ignacio Torregrosa, the regional government of Valencia’s Director General for the Advancement of the Digital Society in the Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society

GMV Secure e-Solutions General Manager Luis Fernando Álvarez-Gascón took part in representation of the company with a presentation that reflected on the economic and reputational impact that an attack of this nature has on infrastructures such as ports and the logistics sector (not to mention the others that are also affected by it). Addressing security and risk management for these infrastructures, many of which are highly critical, as well as the technologies and enabling practices that GMV can use to help clients protect themselves from cybercriminals, were also covered by the executive.

Álvarez-Gascón stressed the need “to demystify, to stop trivializing cybersecurity”, and in reference to ethical hacking, he said it was “a continuous process of supervision and improvement that requires a great deal of specialization”, far removed from the “supposed glamour” it sometimes seems to have. The figures are not insignificant: the United States suffered over 15,000 incidents of ransomware against organizations last year alone. Attacks against the United States cost between $596 million and $2.3 billion in 2020 in the payment of ransoms and lost productivity.

Speaking on the impact of cyberattacks, the GMV executive also referred to aspects that directly affect people, such as "the attack on our rights or our privacy" and even "on our lives", giving as an example of the latter the loss of control of a connected vehicle. He also asked, “Why isn’t there a more secure scenario, with fewer incidents of cybercrime? If the industry does not have an incentive to develop more secure products, it seems like cybercriminals enjoy impunity… “As long as the current context doesn’t change, the scenario of risk won't either.”

To conclude, Álvarez-Gascón highlighted cybersecurity as a sector offering opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship. He also referred to the different European and Spanish regulations in effect to guarantee privacy and security for personal data, which organizations must follow, as well as the certifications that offer the public guarantees. GMV, a leader in cybersecurity for 25 years, has traveled this road with a everything applicable to its area of activity, proving itself a solvent partner for accompanying organizations from the logistics and port sector in their own.