ClassNK is a classification society which carries out surveys to help ensure the safety of vessels and marine structures, and has many achievements involving the certification of ship equipment. TÜV Rheinland is a global leader in testing, inspection and certification services providing digital services for safety, cybersecurity and privacy. Earlier, ClassNK and TÜV Rheinland built a cooperative relationship through the signing of partnership agreements in 2012 for wind turbine certification and in 2015 for test and product certification.
With their most recent partnership agreement, both parties have agreed to comprehensively collaborate in jointly developing and delivering a cybersecurity certification scheme for the maritime industry. Utilizing the knowledge and strength from the services they each provide, they will collaborate globally in the field of cybersecurity in order to further ensure the safety of vessels. Under the agreement, ClassNK will first team up with TÜV Rheinland to work on the cybersecurity guidelines that target onboard software currently being developed by the society. This partnership will also bring efficient and pragmatic cybersecurity certification services to meet the maritime sector’s needs.
ClassNK President and CEO Koichi Fujiwara said, “I am pleased to be able to further strengthen our collaborative relationship with TÜV Rheinland. Digital transformation is changing the way that business is conducted and offering more opportunities, while cybersecurity is an essential factor to its promotion and adoption in the maritime industry. Through the new partnership, we will do everything possible to overcome the cybersecurity challenges of the industry by combining TÜV Rheinland’s abundant expertise and our society’s accumulated knowledge and experience on management systems for ship operations as well as the structure, machinery and other components of ships themselves.”
TÜV Rheinland’s Chairman Dr. Michael Fübi said “Combining our expertise and experience in Industrial Services and Information Technology (IT), Operational Technology (OT) and cybersecurity, we are one of the few organizations developing deep capabilities to offer this level of cybersecurity expertise to maritime industry which is concerned with the safety on-board vessel, compliance with regulatory requirements for cybersecurity, risk assessment and certification. The priority for TÜV Rheinland is to continue delivering its mature cybersecurity services to maritime sector across the globe to protect shareholder investment from cyberattacks and strengthen confidence of regulators and governments.”
