Poseidon's Shield: Secure Marine Data Acquisition System

Abstract

The increasing digitization of the marine industry challenges data acquisition systems capable of withstanding cybersecurity threats. Poseidon’s Shield is a prototype system designed to securely collect, transmit, and visualize sensor data from marine vessels in real time. The prototype addresses security concerns, including data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, through a combination of symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic techniques layered over Ethernet and User Diagram Protocol communication. The system is composed of modular data acquisition, relay, and aggregation nodes that facilitate secure data flow, enhanced with metadata tracking and provenance visualization. Poseidon’s Shield supports legacy marine protocols such as NMEA 2000 and Modbus, enabling backward compatibility while providing a user-friendly interface and real-time security alerts. The prototype developed demonstrates successful integration of secure communication, data provenance, and interactive visualization using Google’s Protocol Buffers framework, MongoDB, and modern cryptographic libraries. While current limitations restrict protection to in-transit data tampering, the system is designed for extensibility to address broader threats. This open-source solution proves that secure, interoperable, and practical marine data systems are feasible and can serve as a foundation for future marine cybersecurity advancements.