Modern ships increasingly rely on interconnected information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), navigation and communication systems. Cybersecurity training and research involving these systems cannot safely be performed on operational shipboard equipment. A cyber range provides an isolated and controlled environment in which realistic systems and networks can be simulated and subjected to cybersecurity experiments.
The objective of this thesis is to design and implement a maritime cyber range for education and research. The student will investigate existing cyber-range concepts and representative shipboard network architectures and use these to define the requirements and architecture of the platform. A working prototype will subsequently be developed using virtual machines, containers and/or dedicated hardware.
The prototype will simulate a simplified shipboard network containing representative maritime components, such as GNSS, AIS or NMEA data streams, navigation software and conventional IT services. Network segmentation, monitoring and logging will also be incorporated. Finally, one or more controlled cyberattack scenarios will be developed and executed to demonstrate and evaluate the functionality of the cyber range.