Maritime cybersecurity: how can operations continue during a cyber crisis?
France Cyber Maritime and SHADLINE announce a partnership to help maritime organisations maintain operations during a cyber crisis and address the business continuity requirements highlighted by NIS2.
A partnership supporting business continuity during cyber crises
Cyberattacks threaten more than IT systems. They can also disrupt organisations’ ability to communicate, coordinate teams and continue essential operations.
In the maritime sector, where operations depend on numerous digital systems, partners and critical infrastructure, this has become a major resilience challenge.
France Cyber Maritime and SHADLINE are therefore announcing a partnership to strengthen M-CERT’s (Maritime Computer Emergency Response Team) operational support capabilities and help the sector prepare for cyber crises.
Why business continuity is becoming a major maritime priority
Ports, shipowners, shipping companies, industrial firms, logistics operators and critical infrastructure have significantly accelerated digital transformation in recent years.
This brings substantial performance and coordination benefits while also increasing digital dependencies.
When a major incident occurs, the challenge extends beyond prevention to maintaining operations when everyday tools are unavailable.
According to figures reported by France Cyber Maritime, 936 cyber incidents affected the maritime sector worldwide in 2025.
Business continuity is therefore becoming a strategic priority alongside system protection.
M-CERT strengthens its cyber crisis management capabilities
Under this partnership, the SHADLINE platform will strengthen M-CERT’s operational support capabilities.
The objective is to give organisations supported by France Cyber Maritime a trusted environment independent of their everyday IT systems, enabling them to:
- Communicate during a crisis;
- Coordinate a crisis team;
- Share essential information;
- Access critical documentation;
- Continue selected activities in fallback mode.
These digital fallback capabilities complement existing cybersecurity arrangements and address the business continuity priorities highlighted by the NIS2 Directive.
Digital fallback capabilities: keep communicating and deciding during a cyberattack
During a cyberattack, organisations often lose more than their applications.
Email, document repositories, collaboration tools and contact directories can become unavailable or untrustworthy.
The immediate priority then becomes restoring the ability to decide, coordinate and act.
SHADLINE addresses this need through a sovereign environment independent of compromised IT systems and readily available to crisis management teams.
Crisis exercises, continuity plans and incident response: an operational approach
From September 2026, the platform will be integrated into M-CERT’s capabilities and may be used for:
- Crisis management exercises;
Business continuity preparedness; - Real incident response situations;
- Work to improve maritime organisations’ resilience.
The two organisations will also work on a SHADLINE instance adapted to the maritime sector’s specific needs.
Digital resilience: the ability to keep acting alongside cybersecurity
This partnership reflects a shared conviction: resilience depends on more than protective measures.
It also depends on organisations’ ability to continue their missions when the unexpected occurs.
Because a cyberattack should not prevent communication, team coordination or decision-making, business continuity must be considered an essential component of every cybersecurity strategy.
This is the shared ambition of France Cyber Maritime and SHADLINE for the maritime sector.
Would you like to assess your readiness for a cyber crisis?
Let’s discuss your crisis scenarios, essential data and restart procedures.
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