Leading Global Safety Giant Backs Greece’s Cyber Defense Revolution

Leading Global Safety Giant Backs Greece’s Cyber Defense Revolution

• Bureau Veritas (BV), a leader in testing, inspection and certification, has endorsed MARINE, a maritime cybersecurity framework developed in Greece.
• MARINE was built by ThreatScene SA with the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping to raise cybersecurity standards in shipping.
• The endorsement reflects how central shipping security has become to global supply chains.
• BV will oversee updates to the framework, including a revision that adds IACS cyber rules.

Greek shipping gets its own cyber playbook

Greece is one of the world’s great shipping nations, and its industry now has a cybersecurity framework built for it. MARINE was developed by the cybersecurity firm ThreatScene SA in partnership with the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping. It gives shipowners practical guidance on protecting ships and ports. On April 14, 2025, Bureau Veritas (BV) Marine & Offshore announced its endorsement.

Why shipping is a target

Shipping carries most of the world’s trade. That makes it an attractive target. Greece, with its long coastline and an economy closely tied to the sea, has a lot at stake, and MARINE is meant to give maritime companies a clear starting point for building cyber resilience across vessel operations and port infrastructure.

What BV’s endorsement adds

BV is known worldwide for testing, inspection and certification, and its endorsement recognizes MARINE as a solid foundation for maritime companies building security programs in line with industry standards. Matthieu de Tugny, president of Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, called the framework “a valuable starting point for the Greek maritime market.”

Maritime leaders increasingly treat cyber risk like physical safety. Under the agreement, ThreatScene will keep updating the framework as technology and regulation change, with BV overseeing that work.

How the framework will be used

MARINE is available as a handbook aimed at IT teams and the shipowners and port authorities they work for. ThreatScene also offers a free online self-assessment that scores a company’s security maturity against industry peers and produces a gap analysis.

BV and ThreatScene plan workshops for a second revision that incorporates IACS cyber regulations, the class society rules that now apply to many new ships. Good timing.

The reach beyond Greece

Greece’s shipping companies operate around the world, so stronger security in the Greek fleet has effects far outside the country. A practical framework with a classification society’s endorsement could become a model for other maritime nations.

Better security can also build confidence among the charterers and insurers that depend on Greek ships. Other shipping communities get a template to borrow.

What comes next

The MARINE endorsement comes as attacks on shipping keep growing. Adoption will decide its value.

For shipowners, the immediate step is simple: run the free self-assessment and use the gap report to set priorities. The upcoming revision will align the guidance with IACS rules.

Greek shipping now has a security framework built for its own industry, with a major classification society behind it, and if operators take it up it could make cybersecurity a normal part of maritime safety both at home and in the many foreign ports Greek ships call on every week.

Fred Templeton, CISA, CASP, SEC+

Fred Templeton is a practicing Information Systems Auditor in the Washington DC area. Fred works as a government contractor and uses his skills in cyber security to make our country's information systems safer from cyber threats. Fred holds a master's degree in cybersecurity and is currently working on his PHD in Information Systems.