The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners approved an agreement Monday with IBM to design and operate a Port Cyber Resilience Center (CRC) at the Port of Los Angeles.
The $6.8 million, three-year agreement with IBM includes hardware, software and services to design, install, operate and maintain the CRC. The board's recommendation to select IBM was based on a competitive
In 2014, the POLA established the nation’s first Port of Los Angeles Cyber Security Operations Center, operated by a dedicated cybersecurity team. The Center currently serves as a centralized location to proactively monitor the port’s own technology environment to prevent and detect cyber incidents. Since 2015, the port has also maintained its ISO 27001 certification for cyber security, the only port with this certification.
The project being developed with IBM will connect companies that operate out of the port to the system.
When the port began developing the plan last year, Moody's Investors Service said it was a
The system’s focus will be on detecting and protecting against malicious cyber attacks that could impact cargo flow, and is expected to greatly improve the quality, quantity and speed of cyber information sharing within the port community, according to POLA.
“As our port increasingly relies on data integration to guide its cargo operations and processes, detection and protection against cyber incidents is critical,” said Port Executive Director Gene Seroka. “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.”
There is a critical need for global supply chains to operate securely and undisrupted, said Wendi Whitmore, vice president of IBM Security X-Force.
"As the Port of Los Angeles takes these significant steps to strengthen the cyber resilience of its ecosystem, we’re proud it selected IBM’s premier capabilities in threat intelligence, AI and cloud security to help achieve this,” she said.
Currently, companies and stakeholders at the port monitor and respond to cyber threats individually. The new system, allows stakeholder control over their own information and security protocols, but the CRC will serve as a “system of systems” and provide a focal point for all the tenants and cargo handlers.
The system will enable the port to identify and counteract threats quickly, Seroka said.
The CRC will also serve as an information resource that stakeholders may use to help restore operations following an attack.
“Collaborative cyber-threat information sharing is critical to the safety and security of our port,” said Thomas Gazsi, Deputy Executive Director/Chief of Public Safety and Emergency Management. “The Cyber Resilience Center is an innovative solution that will put the Port of Los Angeles at the forefront of maritime cybersecurity initiatives.”
