A three-year deal of $6.8 million between the seaport and tech giant includes hardware, software and services to develop, install, operate and manage the first-of-its-kind system aimed at detecting and defending against malicious cyber incidents that potentially affect cargo flow, as well as improving the consistency, quantity and speed of sharing cyber information within its supply chain ecosystem.

“As our port increasingly relies on data integration to guide its cargo operations and processes, detection and protection against cyber incidents is critical. This new Cyber Resilience Center will not only provide the port an early warning system against port-wide cyber attacks, but result in greater collective knowledge and data sharing throughout our entire port supply chain ecosystem,” said Port Executive Director Gene Seroka.

In the midst of an infrastructure investment program aimed at raising the bar for cargo quality, the Port of Los Angeles is also focusing on emerging technology to increase the flow of digital information across the supply chain. With cyber threats emerging as a reality for all sectors, the port is taking proactive measures to increase the awareness and ability of its ecosystem to respond to cyber threats that could disrupt cargo flow.

Companies and stakeholders at the port currently track and respond individually to cyber threats. The CRC will be a Security Intelligence and Operations Center (SIOC) to automate threat coordination and expand its scope beyond conventional maritime stakeholders to port stakeholders, such as cross-sector companies, that are more commonly involved in cargo flows.

The Port of Los Angeles has been the number one container port in the United States for the past twenty years, supporting $276 billion in trade in 2019 alone, as one of the busiest seaports in the world and the leading gateway for foreign trade in North America.

With IBM, this new initiative will increase the quality, quantity and speed of exchanging cyber information within the vast third-party ecosystem of the port.

The agreement involves the software and services of IBM Security for the design, installation, operation and maintenance of the CRC, which will use IBM Cloud Pak for Security, X-Force Threat Intelligence and IBM Security SOAR to enable automated playbook responses to security incidents.

IBM will also partner with TruSTAR to leverage its platform for stakeholder management of business intelligence to automate and distribute intelligence between the Port of Los Angeles and Port Stakeholders.

Maritime Business World