BIMCO, the world’s largest international shipping association, has announced it will publish a cybersecurity clause that will require its members to put procedures in place to protect their data systems.
The clause is due to come into effect in May 2019 and is being drafted by a team led by Inga Froysa, the General Counsel at Norwegian shipping company Torvald Klaveness.
Other parties involved in drafting the clause include shipping management service provider Navig8 and maritime insurance firm UK P&I.
It will fulfill two important functions – to raise awareness of the risks of cyber-attacks and to provide a mechanism for ensuring that procedures are strong enough to prevent them from them happening.
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BIMCO has said the drafting team has discussed if the clause should also address payment fraud, but the conclusion was that this was best dealt with at procedural level by companies tightening up their internal payment procedures.
In a statement, BIMCO said: “Mitigating the effect of a cybersecurity breach is of paramount importance and the clause requires the affected party to notify the other party quickly so that they can take any necessary counter-measures.
“The clause is also designed for use in a broad range of contracts. This way, the clause can cover arrangements with third-party service providers, such as brokers and agents.”
