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INDUSTRY FACT FILE · MARITIME, PORTS & SHIPPING

Main Products and Services in Maritime, Ports and Shipping

What India's ports, terminals, shipping companies, shipyards and waterway operators deliver, the OT, cargo, ship, enterprise and partner systems behind each service, and where those systems create cybersecurity, safety and compliance exposure.

In this document

1. How ports and shipping companies earn their money

2. Products and services by organisation type

3. The operational layer: terminal OT, marine systems and ships

4. The commercial layer: TOS, PCS 1x, customs links and customer platforms

5. The systems behind the products and services

6. Trends that change the attack surface

7. Mapping operations to Codec Networks engagements

1. How ports and shipping companies earn their money

Revenue stream	How it works	Security relevance
Cargo handling	Container, bulk, break-bulk and liquid handling charged per move or tonne	Crane and yard uptime, TOS integrity, billing accuracy
Vessel-related charges	Port dues, pilotage, berth hire, towage	VTS, berth planning and billing systems
Concession and lease income	Terminal concessions, land and warehousing leases	Concession reporting, shared port systems
Freight and charter	Liner, tramp and offshore services; ship management fees	Booking platforms, fleet IT, ship systems, charter data
Shipbuilding and repair	Newbuild contracts, dry-dock repairs, conversions	Design and PLM data, yard OT, customer confidentiality
Logistics and value-added services	CFS, ICD, warehousing, coastal and inland transport	Customs integrations, partner portals, e-way bill

2. Products and services by organisation type

Organisation type	Main products and services	Key systems
Ports and port authorities	Berths, channels, pilotage, port infrastructure, concessions	VTS, port management systems, PCS 1x, billing, SCADA for utilities and gates
Terminal operators	Container, bulk, liquid and Ro-Ro handling, storage, gate services	TOS, crane and RTG control, gate automation and OCR, yard planning, billing
Shipping lines and managers	Liner and tramp services, ship technical and crew management	Booking and documentation platforms, fleet management, ship OT, satcom
Shipyards	Newbuilds, repairs, conversions, offshore structures	CAD/PLM, project ERP, yard OT, customer data rooms
Inland waterways and coastal	Barge, Ro-Ro and coastal cargo and passenger services	Terminal and vessel systems, river information services, ticketing
Port services and platforms	Pilotage, towage, dredging, bunkering, trade platforms	Dispatch systems, vessel automation, PCS and logistics platforms

3. The operational layer: terminal OT, marine systems and ships

A modern terminal is a networked machine. Quay cranes and rubber-tyred gantries carry PLCs and remote diagnostics; automated gates read licence plates and container numbers; conveyors, ship-loaders and tank farms run on SCADA; and vessel traffic services, pilotage and port radio manage the approaches. Many of these systems are supplied and maintained by global OEMs through permanent remote links, and terminals built decades ago still run controllers and protocols with no authentication.

Ships bring their own estate: ECDIS and radar, GNSS and AIS, integrated bridge and engine-room automation, cargo and ballast control, and satellite links that now connect the ship to the owner, the manager, the OEM and the port. GNSS spoofing and jamming in the Gulf and Red Sea in 2025 showed that navigation inputs can be manipulated without touching the ship at all, and the IMO and IACS now treat cyber as part of ship safety.

4. The commercial layer: TOS, PCS 1x, customs links and customer platforms

The commercial layer decides what moves. The terminal operating system holds the position and status of every container and drives cranes, yard equipment and gates; the Port Community System PCS 1x connects ports, customs, shipping lines, forwarders, CFSs and transporters for vessel, cargo, delivery and payment messages; customs filings flow through CBIC systems; and customer portals issue delivery orders, nominate trucks and settle invoices. Shipping lines run booking, documentation and tracking platforms that customers and partners integrate with through APIs.

Behind these sit ERP, finance, HR and email; cloud analytics and digital twins; and personal data on customers, drivers, crew, seafarers and visitors that the DPDP Act and Rules will govern from May 2027. DP World Australia's 2023 incident and the Port of Nagoya's 2023 ransomware showed that when these systems stop, the terminal stops—even if every crane is intact.

Highest-risk moments

OEM remote sessions into crane, gate or SCADA networks, TOS upgrades and go-lives, delivery-order and truck-nomination changes on portals, ship software updates by USB or satcom, dredging and construction contractors on port networks, settlement bank-detail changes and the first hours of a terminal network incident are where port and shipping incidents typically begin or escalate.

5. The systems behind the products and services

Title: Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the maritime and port value chain. - Description: Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the maritime and port value chain.

Figure 2: Where cyber risk sits across the maritime and port value chain.

Product / service	Systems that deliver it	Key cyber and compliance touchpoints
Ship at sea	ECDIS, GNSS, AIS, engine and cargo control, satcom	Ship cyber risk assessment, GNSS integrity, remote access control
Arrival and berth	VTS, pilotage, port radio, berth planning	Marine OT review, availability, data integrity
Terminal OT	Cranes, RTGs, gates, OCR, conveyors, SCADA	OT assessment, segmentation, OEM access, OT monitoring
Cargo systems	TOS, PCS 1x, customs links, billing	Platform and API testing, backups, fraud controls
Gate and hinterland	Gate automation, truck appointment, rail, CFS, e-way bill	Release verification, partner access, anomaly detection
Enterprise and data	ERP, email, cloud, customer, crew and driver data	EDR, identity, SOC, DPDP

6. Trends that change the attack surface

Trend	What is changing	Security implication
Terminal automation	Automated cranes, gates and yard equipment; remote operations	More networked OT and OEM connections to secure
Digital trade platforms	PCS 1x, customs single windows, customer APIs	Platform availability and fraud resistance matter
Connected ships	Satcom bandwidth, remote diagnostics, fleet software updates	Ship-to-shore access as a primary risk
New ports and capacity	Sagarmala projects, new terminals, Vadhavan	Security by design at go-live
Regulatory formalisation	MSC.428(98), UR E26/E27, CERT-In audits, new 2025 Acts	Audits that include ships and OT
Navigation interference	GNSS spoofing and jamming in chokepoints	Integrity monitoring and bridge procedures

7. Mapping operations to Codec Networks engagements

If the organisation operates…	Recommended starting engagement
Container, bulk or liquid terminals with automation	Terminal OT assessment, segmentation design, OEM access controls
A TOS, PCS integration or customer portals	Cargo platform and API testing, fraud-resistance review, backup and restore testing
Ships under ISM with class surveys	MSC.428(98) cyber risk assessment, UR E26/E27 readiness, bridge and engine-room reviews
Port-wide shared systems and VTS	Marine OT and shared services review, CII-aligned controls
Shipyard design and project environments	Data classification, subcontractor access, threat hunting
Many OEMs, contractors and partners with access	Third-party access programme and joint exercises

Talk to Codec Networks

Contact

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Email: mktg@codecnetworks.com Web: www.codecnetworks.com

Note: Descriptions are general and based on public information available as of October 2026. Systems and exposures differ by port, terminal and fleet.