In the 2019 Industrial, Economic and Administrative Survey of the Port of Los Angeles (POLA), officials pointed out the Los Angeles Harbor Department (HD) has a “low” vulnerability to incursions because it established a Network Security Operations Center (NSOC) and hired a chief information security officer, roughly four and five years ago, respectively. However, HD noted, port tenants’ vulnerability to cyberattack is “currently unknown but may have a substantial impact.”
The port, which handles approximately 20 percent of all cargo coming into the United States — and is the largest container facility in the Western Hemisphere — was also the nation’s first port to achieve ISO 27001 certification, recognition prompted by the “effectiveness of the NSOC,” the survey found. ISO certification, recognized worldwide, indicates that a company or entity meets stringent information security management standards.
Report authors identified several ways the port should continue to modernize technology and its stewardship of tech and enhance cybersecurity. They recommended:
• Continuing to work to ensure the port’s internal cyberenvironment is secure — and partnering with port tenants to assess and strengthen cybersecurity. This recommendation was rated high priority; HD, survey authors wrote, currently “has no visibility” into tenant security.
They recommended creating and publishing policies and standards for tenants indicating “minimum levels of cybersecurity protection” for those using “computer-controlled equipment” for cargo-handling; considering offering third-party independent audits to evaluate tenant cybersecurity; and ensuring proposed physical services like 5G conform to published standards. The survey identified the possibility of “interference with marine equipment” connected to or controlled by computers as “an increasing concern in the marine community.”
Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin, whose office teamed with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office and the chief legislative analyst representing the city council in producing the survey, said officials are eager to connect with tenants to offer assistance; learn more about what they’re currently doing in the area of cybersecurity; and identify any potentially replicable best practices among tenants.
• Evaluating business processes and system requirements across divisions — the former of which “are hampered by a lack of technology in operating areas” — and creating a blueprint for data and systems requirements. This was also rated high priority.
“The most serious shortcoming of the data-related issues is the inability of the organization to develop an integrated view of operations,” authors wrote. They identified a lack of integration that extended to business groups independently defining requirements and selecting systems; and to divisions individually evaluating and installing software that met their needs. Author suggestions included creating a “cross-functional task force” of senior managers to evaluate business systems requirements cross-divisionally; forming a working group of managers from divisions who are familiar with the most critical areas to determine those of highest value; and creating business groups in operations, to lead implementation.
“Obviously, it’s a constant upgrading that has to be done. You are never ever done. But as is true for many big operations, the technology comes upon us very quickly and we cannot allow ourselves to fall behind. And these different divisions of the port need to be able to really be as enmeshed with each other as they possibly can,” Galperin told Techwire.
• Considering development and implementation of an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach that expands HD’s consideration of risk in operations and making decisions. The survey showed HD has “a comprehensive and well-managed program for managing hazard risks” internally and at the port — but hasn’t implemented ERM. Thus, internal audits, risk management and compliance and financial examinations may exist but “aren’t integrated”; and business processes and risk ownership “aren’t well defined.”
Galperin said the port has “long been focused on how to prevent and mitigate certain kinds of risk” but the question is how agencies can continually take a more proactive, sophisticated approach.
“New risks arise all the time in this fast-paced world in which we live. You can be unbelievably prepared yesterday. That does not necessarily mean you are as well-prepared as you would want to be today,” Galperin said.
Conducted at least once every five years per the city charter, this edition of the survey cost nearly $499,000.
POLA spokesman Phillip Sanfield told Techwire that officials likely “will be looking one by one at these recommendations” in coming months.
In his State of the Port of Los Angeles address Jan. 24, POLA Executive Director Gene Seroka said 2019 will be a year for “continued focus on our ongoing digital transformation,” including collaborating with terminal operators and other partners to stand up a Cyber Resiliency Center he described as “an early warning system” to raise the alarm on active cyberthreats.
“As we continue to advance into the digital space, we recognize that cybersecurity must be deeply rooted into all of our technology considerations. The Port of L.A. alone blocks 20 [million] to 30 million cyberintrusion attempts a month,” Seroka said, highlighting the creation of the NSOC.
