Cybersecurity for Maritime Operational Technology Programme

The Cybersecurity for Maritime Operational Technology Programme is a workforce-capability programme developed by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA), the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). MPA announced that it would launch in August 2026 to build a pipeline of maritime-cybersecurity talent and help shipping companies secure increasingly connected shipboard and shore-based systems (MPA, Maritime OT Cybersecurity Programme).

Intended participants and skills

The programme is designed for corporate IT professionals in shipping companies, rather than being a general cybersecurity course for every maritime worker. Participants learn about threats to shipboard operational technology, cyber-resilience for systems such as navigation, propulsion and power management, incident response, and integrating cybersecurity considerations into vessel design (MPA, Maritime OT Cybersecurity Programme).

The distinction between enterprise IT and shipboard OT matters because ship systems interact with physical operations and safety-critical machinery. A participant who understands conventional IT security still needs the maritime operational context to reason about vessel control, availability, safe intervention and the effects of a cyber incident on navigation or propulsion (MPA, Maritime OT Cybersecurity Programme; SUTD iTrust, Maritime).

Delivery and MariOT exercise

MPA describes a two-month programme combining online learning with in-person training at the SIT Punggol Campus. It includes an applied exercise at SUTD's Centre for Research in Cyber Security (iTrust), using the Maritime Testbed of Shipboard Operational Technology (MariOT). In the controlled exercise, participants manage simulated cyber incidents rather than disrupting a live vessel (MPA, Maritime OT Cybersecurity Programme).

MariOT is an industrial-grade cyber-physical simulator with integrated shipboard navigation, propulsion and power-control systems. SUTD describes it as a controlled platform for maritime-cybersecurity research, technology validation and training, which allows participants and researchers to exercise shipboard OT scenarios without using an operating vessel as the test environment (SUTD iTrust, Maritime).

Frequency, subsidy and boundary

The course is planned to run quarterly and is subsidised under the SkillsFuture scheme. MPA expects about 70 participants annually. Those figures describe the announced delivery plan, not a guaranteed place for every applicant, a mandatory qualification for all shipping-company staff or proof that 70 people have completed the course (MPA, Maritime OT Cybersecurity Programme).

The programme is a skills and resilience intervention, not a maritime cybersecurity regulation, a vessel-certification approval or a substitute for a shipping company's own risk-management and incident-response obligations. Its MariOT exercise complements the broader maritime R&D, autonomous-shipping and cybersecurity ecosystem; it does not itself certify a vessel or make a shipboard system secure by participation alone.