MAIN HEAD Mess of ship security alerts DECK The legislation for ship security alerts is a big mess, because of maritime rescue centres reluctance to take the responsibility of receiving them BODY Under the ISPS code, all ships must fit ship security alert systems - many administrations are saying by July 1 of this year, with some allowing extensions until the first radio survey after July 1. They need it to get an ISPS certificate and won't be allowed into the US without it. The idea is a simple one - seafarers have a means of alerting authorities, or their company, if they are subject to a terrorist or pirate attack. But the practicalities are infinitely complex because decisions have not yet been made as to who the alert should be sent to and what they should do with it. The shipping company? The flag adminstration? The local coastal maritime safety centre? The nearest Ministry of Defence? Inmarsat originally made plans for the ship alert signal to use the same "distress" communications lines as the GMDSS signal, which means that the signal is sent free of charge, takes priority over all other satellite communications and is delivered to the nearest Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC). The problem is that some of the MRCCs, reported to include Japan, Norway, Netherlands, Panama, Malta and Australia, didn't want it. "Japan and Netherlands claimed they didn't know what to do with a distress alert if they couldn't contact the shipowner," says Brian Mullan, general manager of safety services with Inmarsat. "However there is a French paper saying that RCCs should receive security alerts. We are going to have this discussion a little bit further." Captain Peter Raes, general manager of shipping company Tecto, which operated the VLCC Limburg, the only merchant vessel ever to be subject to a terrorist attack, has no doubt about what should happen to the alert message. "It should sent to the Ministry of Defence of the nearest country, who would be best able to deal with it," he says. "What will they do? I don't know." "Someone had ideas in Belgium - the SSAS signal comes to us [as shipowners]. So it comes to us. And the ship is in Indonesia. What do we do?" Phil White, head of security with the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, says that his vision of how SSAS should work is with the alert message going from the ship to the shipping company, and also sent to the ship's flag administration's maritime rescue co-ordination centre (MRCC). Shipping companies must keep a 24 hour service checking for alerts, which must itself be reslient, he says. He notes that the MRCC does not receive very useful information - only the ship's name and its location, which does not even provide enough information for it to telephone the ship. However it can get an idea of the likelihood that the threat is real based on the location of the ship and knowledge about the company. The shipping company can have a verification process to see if it is an alert, such as a coding message system, he says. As Julian Longson, VP Business Development, at Pole Star explains, "COMSAR 8 [IMO meeting in Feb 2004] supported the Japanese proposal that SSAS alerts should be sent from the ship directly to its flag administration, or proper recipient as designated by the administration, without transmission to coastal states or MRCC'S in the region." SUBHEAD Approved equipment The decision has an impact on certain SSAS equipment already in the market, which is geared around sending the ship security alert through the GMDSS system; shipping companies which have already fitted this will need a small software upgrade. IMO has which allowed for a broad definition of the performance criteria of possible solutions and opened the way for many different service providers to offer competing products. However, it is unclear how the individual flag states will deal with the issue of type approval. So far the UK MCA & USCG have approved some Inmarsat-C and D+ applications, and many of these systems have also been certified by the class societies. The Globe Wireless system has received type-approval from leading class societies such as LR and ABS. SUBHEAD GMDSS Meanwhile, the ship alert messages can be sent by normal channels (Inmarsat -C, mini-C, D+, Iridium, Globe Wireless) but this means that, in most cases, the report will be delivered to the shipping company as an e-mail, which is not 100 per cent reliable, subject to e-mail bugs, accidental spam filtering and easy to fake. However GMDSS is not a very flexible messaging system - it does not allow messages to go to multiple destinations. "In operational terms, it is far safer to keep a ship's SSAS entirely independent of its GMDSS installation," says SSAS manufacturer Satamatics. "If the latter's operation became compromised - either through deliberate attack or equipment failure - then the SSAS would remain serviceable." "In practice, it is also more economical to install an independent SSAS solution than trying to convert or adapt existing GMDSS equipment." As for the change in operational procedure, "[with the GMDSS system] each MRCC would have had to implement procedures to route alerts from foreign flag ships to their associated Flag Administration," says Julian Longson of Pole Star. "This was deemed by several administrations as too sensitive and cumbersome on both counts." In the non-GMDSS scenario, "the Competent Authority / Company and Flag state are informed of the alert and they between themselves can establish the true / false nature of the alert and any subsequent actions before informing the Coastal state in which the ship is sailing," Mr Longson says. This does raise one issue that may be problematic with the new configuration. According to an information leaflet distributed by the United States Coast Guard, quoting SOLAS XI/2 Regulation 6, "When an Administration receives a security alert from one of its own flagged vessels, that administration shall immediately notify the state in which the ship is currently operating." In light of this, whether the option for flag state and owner to make a decision on when to inform the coastal state of any suspected alert will be accepted by the US and other security sensitive states remains to be seen. SUBHEAD Are SSAS secure? SSAS manufacturers have done everything they can to ensure that the equipment is as surreptitious and foolproof as possible. The satellite communications hardware is designed to have no defining features, so normal "give-aways" such as an external aerial are situated elsewhere. According to Satamatics, "Product literature tends to provide more information about how a system works than what it necessarily looks like, and where a photograph is shown, this is often more of an example than a definitive representation." Nevertheless there must be some concern that the details of an SSAS installation could be revealed to a terrorist, since someone has to fit it and the shipping company and provider must keep records. "Each shipping company is required to have a security plan in place in order to account for various types of sensitive situations, like keeping the location and inner workings of the SSAS as covert as possible," comments Meredith Schindehette, senior marketing manager at Weathernews. "It has been our experience, that oftentimes, the only person who really knows where the system is being installed and the back-end of its operation is the Captain, so companies are trying to keep the number of people who know the SSAS details to a minimum." In addition systems have a fail-safe that means any tampering will result in an alert being sent. For example, "With Weathernews' ASAP system, even if someone knows the installation location, the appearance of the SSAS and the details of how the system works, they will not be able to tamper with it," explains Ms. Schindehette. "If anyone tries to alter the system or render it inactive, a silent alarm will sound and the authorities will be notified of a breach. At that point, it is up to the government and the company who owns the vessel to take appropriate action to make sure the vessel and the crew are safe." Of course, what happens in order to ensure that an alert is genuine, and how to deal with the situation when a terrorist or hijacker is trying to force co-operation from the crew, or the problem of false alarms leading to complacency, are whole other issues. SUBHEAD Costs Some companies are announcing the stand-alone prices of their systems. This is primarily a one-off cost, since by nature SSAS does not incur large running costs. Other companies prefer to tie up the cost in airtime and service deals so no simple comparison is possible. Weathernews' ASAP system has a one-time cost of $2500 and nominal monthly fees to ensure the unit is working. Horizon Mobile Communications (HMC) has already received 40 vessel orders for its Mini-C solution and is now offering the Mini-C SSAS package at a special price of US$2,399 for a limited period, "whilst stocks last." SUBHEAD Inmarsat D+ Several manufacturers are opting for the D+ system as the communications method of choice, because of its low cost and versatile messaging capabilities. Pole Star has one system based on its Purplefinder solution, while Satamatics' global asset tracking network is the choice for several suppliers that are providing front-end applications to its infrastructure. According to Satamatics, there are now over 5000 Inmarsat D+ based SSAS solutions installed in the maritime market. Transas, a user of Satamatics' hardware in its Ship Guard solution, feels that the outcome of the IMO COMSAT meeting adds weight to the argument that D+ is the flag state method of choice, bypassing difficulties over Inmarsat-C messaging and some non type approved solutions. According to Transas, "Unless Inmarsat-C suppliers link with a reputable front-end message handling application, the most suitable solution is the high-end small and inexpensive Inmarsat D+ system. Supplied by several different solutions suppliers, each provide a comprehensive message handling option to comply with flag state requirements." Ship Guard uses Satamatics' hardware with the Transas www.fleetviewonline.com web-based tracking application as a front end. According to Transas, the solution is also capable of offering much more than just an SSAS, including tracking and a "marine asset alert system." Other features include position reporting and polling on demand, animated real-time and forecast weather data, and "specially adapted high-quality Transas sea charts and land maps to enable high-speed loading via the internet." The D+ terminal can be also be integrated with a number of sensor inputs for status and exception reporting, for example, "a sensor can be installed to warn of an open hatch, to detect unexpected tamper or movement of an engine or even that water is being taken onboard. This feature could also be extended to warn of man overboard with a proximity sensor being affixed to vessel passengers." MARIS has also partnered with Satamatics to sell a 'best value' SSAS Solution, Ocean Alert. This also uses the Sat 101 terminal and includes exception reports - for example, when a vessels moves outside a pre-determined zone, reaches a particular destination or a hatch is opened without authorisation. SUBHEAD MarineTrack SeaGuard MarineTrack has been supplying asset tracking services since the beginning of 2000. Its systems are already in use protecting ships and cargoes, individuals such as royal families and politicians, trucks and containers. Its product has been tested and sea trialled by Marine Risk Consulting & Investigations Ltd (MRCI), part of the Lloyds Marine information unit, and Marine & Underwater Consultants Ltd. (MUSCL). It has also received UK MCA approval. SUBHEAD Purplefinder Pole Star's Purplefinder DSAS was already being supplied to the marine industry before 9/11, and more recently it has been selected by VShips for all its managed vessels. It was also the first to receive UK flag approval via the MCA, in conjunction with the approval of the first Ship Security Plan for the vessel CS Sovereign operated by Global Marine Systems Limited. The announcement of UK flag approval reassures owners that the solution will meet all the requirements and came at the end of last year in plenty of time for the January 31, 2004 deadline, by which UK ship owners had to ensure that Ship Security Plans were submitted. Another first was the successful ABS ISPS Code audit completed on the "C Dream" VLCC tanker owned by Hong Kong-based Univan Ship Management, which was the first on a vessel fitted with a ship security alert system. Pole Star's overall solution consists of the DSAS communication and controller unit with alert activation points, Inmarsat service, integration into Pole Star's proprietary PurpleFinder web-based shore application / alert verification system, the Purple24 alert monitoring centre, and after sales customer and technical support. It thus seeks to offer a complete service, including easing the administrative burden of completing a ship security plan. Captain John Golding, CSO of Global Marine Systems, comments, "As part of their overall DSAS solution, Pole Star provide a detailed interface document defining the procedures, instructions and guidance on the use of the system, including the testing, de-/activation, resetting and alert verification system, which is seamlessly integrated into the [ship security] plan." SUBHEAD GlobeAlert Globe Wireless has recently won the Lloyd's List 2004 Maritime Technology Award for its GlobeAlert system, a versatile ship security system that includes functionality to monitor access to sensitive parts of the ship as well as its unique SSAS system using digital HF radio. Frank Coles, Globe Wireless President / COO, comments, "In January alone we sold over 300 GlobeAlert systems. To receive the recognition of the award as well as our customers is evidence of a solid, well designed solution for the ISPS regulations. Our aim is to provide practical solutions, fit for purpose and at a reasonable cost. GlobeAlert fits this objective." Globe Wireless sees its alert services as an integral part of its IT@Sea "one stop shop" for shipboard IT and communications, and is one of the few companies to offer a fixed monthly price for its package of solutions. All existing customers of its services will also benefit from free installation of the ship alert system. The company likes to stress that it can operate its radio network at a lower price than competitive systems because it owns the entire infrastructure. It is now including a GPS with all new shipboard installations and claims that the cost of its web-based tracking system, used by around 600 vessels, is less than a third of rival systems. It provides a full service including shipboard computer supply, installation and support. Everything is covered by a fixed price contract, including travel cost and expenses of personnel, SSAS and tracking and all ship-shore communications provided it stays within fixed limits. SUBHEAD Iridium Iridium has recently responded to the need for alternatives to the GMDSS system by launching its own range of SSAS options. It can send SSAS messages through its global satellite network, using short burst data (SBD), short messaging service (SMS) or circuit switched data protocols, with calls routed through public switched telephone networks, virtual private networks or the Internet. "Iridium offers important advantages over other maritime satellite communication systems for SSAS," says Christina Clifton, executive vice president, sales and marketing. "Iridium's 66-satellite constellation ensures global pole-to-pole coverage with no reliance on regional infrastructure or ground routing, and communications security is ensured through our robust data protocols." Ms Clifton sees the cost of the system as offset against savings gained from the ability to make use of the Iridium network for voice and data communications. She feels it is also important to note that the SSAS equipment can be upgraded for long-range identification and tracking of ships (LRSIT) in the future. Website list www.imo.org www.uscg.mil www.inmarsat.com www.iridium.com www.globewireless.com www.purplefinder.com www.marinetrack.com www.maris.no www.transas.com www.tt.dk www.satamatics.com www.horizon-mobile.com www.sailor.dk www.wni.com www.dyos-communications.com NOTE: The companies reviewed in this list, and included in the websites list, is not exhaustive