Risk management for new information technology insertion in a shipping company

In the past, users from High-vulnerability Information Handling Organisations (HIHO) used exclusively HIHO private communication networks and own satellite resources in order to share and transport sensitive information. The very last years, the ability for the HIHO network users to exploit the advantages of the Low-vulnerability Information Handling Organisations (LIHO) value added networks, led to the need for augmentation of the HIHO networks. This is a very common practice to most of shipping companies. This paper outlines the security profile for the interconnected HIHO and LIHO open distributed systems and networks. It also examines the basic system aspects and suggests a preliminary strategy for achieving a system oriented risk assessment framework.