The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has published a new standard to regulate the exchange of data and maritime information in a secure way.

IEC 63173-2 SECOM is a new standard developed with Voyage Information Service within Sea Traffic Management (STM). The new interface works for transfer of S-100 products and can also be used for other formats.

Development started in 2019 and the final version was published on 30 May.

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“Route exchange in the STM Validation project was the starting point. However, in the standardisation work the scope was expanded from voyage plans and navigational warnings to include exchange of all S-100 based products”, said Björn Andreasson STM Testbed Manager.

“SECOM is an exchange layer that guarantees that different services and software exchange data the same way,” added Hannu Peiponen Chair of the Maritime Navigation and Radiocommunication Equipment and Systems Committee at IEC.

“For manufacturers of maritime systems this eliminates the need to support several different service interfaces for different services and products. If a service or product works with one actor using it, it will work with all.

“This will make it easier to provide valuable end-user services to the maritime community to increase safety and efficiency while at the same time opens a possibility to reduce the environmental footprint”.

SECOM aims to be a key reference point for interoperability of the same magnitude as standard data formats and common authentication methods.

Source: https://www.porttechnology.org/news/iec-publishes-new-standard-for-maritime-data-security/