Maritime security

Another day another attempt to circumvent sanctions – this time with ship-to-ship deceptive shipping practices An Indonesian vessel recently picked up two tankers, the MT Freya and the MT Horse, in the middle of a ship-to-ship transfer. The reason? A likely attempt to pass Iranian oil to an unnamed customer in Asia.  Events like this…

Insecurity is on the rise in the South China Sea. While all eyes are on the growing geopolitical tensions between the US and China around Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims, new types of threats are resurfacing: South Asian countries face piracy, and sea-borne crimes are increasing at an alarming rate.  To further complicate matters, COVID-19…

Regardless of their location on land, in the sky or at sea, criminals have one thing in common: they will always try to exploit weaknesses.  As the stakes get higher, the novel ways in which criminals try to circumvent the systems and securities that protect us change. This forces law enforcement agencies and businesses to…

There’s been an explosion in the amount of data available. It’s growing all the time. So too are the insights it can potentially provide. In a world of increasing complexity, there are frameworks that can be implemented to help your organization enhance situational awareness. What will help you see beyond the horizon? As the amount…

How can we apply all the data on past behavior to boost our understanding of the maritime domain today and in the future? In this Captain’s Blog, Omer Primor lays out the innovations required to ready ourselves for the next decade of insights. Going into 2020, it’s hard to believe where maritime domain awareness (MDA)…

From terrorism to refugees to regional tensions – there’s plenty to keep Indians up at night. With that in mind, the country has, in recent years, redoubled its efforts to protect its seas and coastline, enhancing its maritime domain awareness, rapidly adopting new technologies and analytics. Download a PDF of the map Against this backdrop,…

From Brexit, to refugees, to spillovers from the Syrian and Libyan civil wars – there’s plenty to keep Europeans up at night. And these are just the things we can see. What about the stuff we can’t? Download a PDF of the map The second edition of our European Threat Map reveals some of the…

Millions of fishing vessels ply the world’s waters. In the global maritime ecosystem, they are like ants: myriad, ceaselessly industrious, and mostly unnoticed. The vast majority are hardworking and law-abiding. But fishing vessels are also perhaps the most underestimated carriers of transnational crime, key links in the invisible supply chains of the world’s illicit commerce. …

Combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is inherently a big data challenge. Billions of Automatic Identification System (AIS) and Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) messages from tens of thousands of active vessels must be sorted and examined to find the few vessels that are likely to be committing illicit activity.3 On top of that, data…

It’s a Mediterranean migrant rescue that went off-script. According to reports, the Palau-flagged tanker “Elhiblu 1” picked up the migrants off the coast of Libya. It was heading towards Tripoli when the rescued migrants apparently hijacked the vessel, turned it around and headed for Malta. But that’s not quite the full story. A Windward analysis…

One after another, they made their way to the stage. Dressed in their crisp, naval uniforms, men and women from some of the world’s most powerful maritime nations ascended to the lectern. Looked out to the audience. And spoke about interoperability and its critical role for the success of maritime security operations. To be sure,…

Shipping is an expensive business. Costs for things like fuel, crews, port fees and maintenance can add up to millions of dollars. To be profitable, a ship has to be run as efficiently as possible. If it isn’t, it may indicate the vessel is making money illegally; or that it’s vulnerable to being exploited by…