Combating Piracy Week London 2011 October 22, 2011
Posted by Chris Mark in Piracy & Maritime Security, Uncategorized.Tags: Chris Mark, combating piracy week, hanson wade, InfoSec, Maritime Security, Piracy & Maritime Security
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I am currently flying back from London on Delta after returning from Piracy Week. While we will provide a more in-depth update later I wanted to capture some comments. Overall the event was well worth the investment and was a very well attended event. Hanson Wade did a great job of managing the event and encouraging networking. I have spoken at well over 100 events in the past 10 years and I would say this was in the top 5%. Marie, James, Jethro, Sara, David, Miles and crew at HW did a great job.
The lineup of speakers was impressive as were the attendees. All speakers showed and provided some very good information. Some of the speakers included representatives from the Somali Government, as well as the UN, UKPTO, and IMO, among others. Of course, I (Chris Mark) was a speaker at the event. Even competitors such PVI, and Salama Fakira had speakers, as did other companies such as Rubicon advisors. Both Conrad and Dom provided very valuable information.
Attendees included numerous shipping companies and representatives. The overall view was that armed security is an important component of the overall security strategy. Numerous speakers confirmed that no armed vessels have been hijacked to date.
Overall, I would suggest that any ship owner or other stakeholder with a real interest in security may want to consider attending a Piracy Week event hosted by Hanson Wade. The hosts are great, the speakers are good and the attendees are bright and committed.
US & UK Forces Free Italian Ship! October 11, 2011
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Chris Mark, InfoSec, MV Montecristo, Piracy & Maritime Security, somali pirates
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A joint effort between US and UK forces freed the MV Montecristo and arrested 11 pirates. According to reports each country had one naval vessel involved in the rescue and took control of the vessel with a “compliant boarding”.
Italian Ship Feared Hijacked by Somali Pirates October 10, 2011
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Chris Mark, InfoSec, Maritime Security, MV Montecristo, Piracy & Maritime Security, somali pirates
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According to reports the Italian vessel the MV Montecristo was under attack by Somali pirates and feared hijacked approximately 620 miles from the Somali coast. ‘We were last in radio contact with the vessel at 6.40 am (0400 GMT) this morning and we fear that the ship may have been hijacked during the intervening 10 hours,” spokesman Alessio Melillo of the Leghorn-based D’Alesio Group told dpa. The Ship’s 23 member crew consists of 7 Italians, 10 Ukranians, and 6 Indian nationals.
Tanzanian Army Arrests 7 in Attempted Pirate Attack October 6, 2011
Posted by Chris Mark in Uncategorized.Tags: Chris Mark, InfoSec, Maritime Security, Piracy & Maritime Security, somali pirates, Somalia
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An article on Oct. 5th, 2011 states that the Tanzanian army arrested 7 pirates after a failed hijacking of an oil exploration ship. The army arrested the 7 after an attempted hijacking of the 
oil exploration ship. The pirates reportedly had 16 rounds of sub-machine gun ammunition and pain killers. According to Tanzanian authorities: “Our navy men opened fire in the air as a warning but the pirates did not surrender and instead fired directly at the soldiers. There was exchange of fire, the pirates were overpowered, and decided to surrender by throwing their weapons in the sea and raised up their arms,” Col. Mgawe said.
The interesting aspect of this story is that the pirates did not flee and instead chose to exchange fire with the soldiers. This once again demonstrates the increasing violence of Somali pirates and their willingness to accept greater risk in their attempts to hijack ships.
Pirates’ Core Competency?- Kidnapping October 3, 2011
Posted by Chris Mark in Piracy & Maritime Security.Tags: Chris Mark, InfoSec, Maritime Security, Piracy & Maritime Security, Somalia
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I worked for years in the credit card data security industry. There is a saying that credit card fraud cannot be eliminated only shifted. The fact remains that credit card fraud provide too great of a return on investment with little risk for criminals to ”give up” when new technologies are employed to stop one type of fraud. They simply change tactics to obtain the data they can use to perpetrate fraud.
Recently, it was disclosed that another tourist was kidnapped from a beach in Kenya by Somalis. The prevailing belief is that the kidnappers were ‘pirates’. In reality, the pirates we have been seeing off the coast of Somalia are, at their core, kidnappers. When companies began arming vessels and the traditional method of kidnapping their victims became too risky, some began shifting their tactics.
There is both good news and bad news from this change in tactics. The good news is that the efforts of arming vessels and the presence of maritime forces is having some effect on reducing the number of hijackings. This can be seen in the reduction of successful attacks against ships. The downside is that at least pirates have correctly identified that kidnapping is likely where the money can be found and presents less risk than hijackings. In the end we will continue to see the pirates adapting in relation to the increasing security on the vessels.
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