Biden administration to issue new cyber directives aimed at defending ports, invest billions in new port infrastructure

The Biden administration on Wednesday will issue multiple cybersecurity directives aimed at shoring up vulnerabilities at US maritime ports that could be exploited by hackers and addressing security risks from Chinese-made cranes, according to senior US officials.

Administration officials also plan to invest more than $20 billion over the next five years in new port infrastructure, including cranes built in the US that officials say will present less of a cybersecurity and counterintelligence risk.

A new executive order from President Joe Biden will require US ships and port facilities to report cyberattacks, while giving the Coast Guard greater authority to inspect or control ships that “present a known or a suspected cyber threat,” Rear Adm. John Vann, head of the Coast Guard Cyber Command, told reporters in a call previewing the directives.

US officials are also making their most direct public statement yet on the security risks from Chinese-made cranes, which Vann said account for nearly 80% of the cranes used at US ports. The Coast Guard will impose new cybersecurity requirements on the operators of those cranes to mitigate the risk they pose, Vann said on the call.

The cranes can be controlled remotely, meaning that a hacker with access to the cranes’ networks could collect intelligence from ports or, in theory, even cause disruptions of equipment.

Any disruption to US maritime networks “has the potential to cause cascading impacts to our domestic or global supply chains,” Vann said.

There are more than 200 Chinese-made cranes at “US ports and regulated facilities,” according to Vann. Coast Guard cyber experts have done security assessments and hunted for malicious cyber activity on 92, or less than half, of those cranes, he said.

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