Classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR) and Chinese shipyard COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry have partnered on the development of an 82,500 dwt cyber-resilient bulk carrier design.
As informed, the vessel is designed to meet Unified Requirement (UR) E26, which governs the cyber resilience of ships.
Issued by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS), the UR comes into force on July 1, 2024.
The new IACS requirements aim to secure the integration of both operational and information technology equipment onboard a ship throughout the vessel’s lifecycle.
The UR applies to aspects of a vessel and its operations, including equipment identification, protection, attack detection, response, and recovery.
According to LR, the partnership is LR’s first JDP focused on E26 compliance.
“Cyber security has become an increasing concern for shipowners and this JDP represents an important milestone to support cyber resilience of vessels. In partnership with COSCO Heavy Industry, Lloyd’s Register will create its first vessel design in line with the new IACS UR E26 requirement,” Sau Weng Tang, Commercial Manager, Greater China, said.
“To resolve shipowner’s concerns on UR E26, we worked with LR and achieved the first E26 approval from LR. The upgrade on UR E26 compliance enables our yards, designing department, and system vendors to be fully prepared when UR E26 come into force. It ensures shipowners can reduce their cyber risks,” Pan Zhiyuan, Director of Design & Research Institute, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, commented.