NAVSEA: Submarines Control Systems are at Risk for Cyber Attack

The head of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) warned that the U.S. Navy will have to ramp up its cyber-security efforts to secure the controls systems of its submarines.

“It is the threat to our control systems,” Vice Adm. William Hilarides, commander of NAVSEA, told an audience at the Naval Submarine League Symposium in Falls Church, Va. on Wednesday.
“We’re just now starting to hear the inklings of it.”

There are little noticed cyber vulnerabilities on nuclear attack submarines like the Virginia-class boats that are slowly becoming the mainstay of the Navy’s undersea fleet, Hilarides said. One example of that is the Virginia-class boat’s backup Caterpillar-built diesel engine, he said.

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