Sent 31 January 2018. Part of Little Blue Letter.

"The problem is not the problem.
The problem is your attitude about the problem."
~ Jack Sparrow
Cyber pirates
The shipping industry carries around 90% of world trade. Almost any product you can think of follows a well-oiled distribution chain: factory, truck, ship, truck, consumer. Any disruption to this chain results in significant economic loss for companies, and ultimately the customer. While maritime piracy is traditionally enemy number one, costing up to $16 billion per year, new technologies are bringing more advanced threats.

Last year, the NotPetya ransomware attack caused chaos at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Trucks waited up to 8 hours to pick up goods as one of the world's busiest ports was forced to revert to manual systems for managing incoming cargo. The episode was a jarring wake-up call to the shipping industry.
Queue forming outside Port Newark.
Delays are especially damaging to truck drivers, often paid per trip completed, rather than hourly.

Three years ago, the Port of Los Angeles established a Cybersecurity Operations Center, which has since handled 20 million-plus cyber intrusion attempts. Meanwhile, cyber-security experts have shown that it is possible to hijack a billionaire's superyacht from your laptop.

Clearly the industry's gaping security holes won't be fixed by a Windows XP update.
Ocean opportunity
Are you an ocean entrepreneur? Is your idea so innovative that your family and friends don't understand what you are talking about? Blue Invest 2018 aims to match cutting edge technologies with public and private investors. Also worth checking out the Sustainable Ocean Alliance's ocean solutions accelerator.
Gif of the week
Happy belated Pancake Day from the majestic "sea pancake".
Happy belated Valentine's day too! ♡
Bathroom blues
There are many things you can do to stop itty bitty bits of plastic ending up in our ocean. Start  in the bathroom: pass on the plastic shampoo bottles by using shampoo bars. Everything you need to know here. On the bathroom sustainability warpath? Try: bamboo toothbrushes, guppyfriend bags, and degradable cotton buds.
From the editor
We published a comment piece in Nature last week which I am super excited about: Protect the neglected half of our blue planet. I am currently reading The Box by Marc Levinson. Malcom McLean, who's parents didn't have enough money to send him to university, used their meagre savings to buy him a truck. He turned that truck into a freight company, and ultimately pioneered the intermodal shipping container. There are now more than 20 million containers in circulation. The world's biggest container ship can carry 21,000 of them.
Malcom McLean at Port Newark, 1957.
The OOCL Hong Kong at port.
​Little Blue Letter was curated this week by Selene Suau. Selene is a psychologist and project manager at Sea Teach in sunny Mallorca. She is passionate about bridging science, innovation and society through communication.
Editing etc. by Glen Wright. Glen is a researcher studying marine governance, the high seas, and ocean energy. He is a drinker of tea, lover of the sea, and an Oxford comma user. Glen recently published Academia Obscura: The Hidden Silly Side of Higher Education.
 

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