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IMCA's Human Factors in Modern Maritime Security seminar

Published on 2 November 2016

Registrations for the International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) forthcoming Security Seminar being held in London on Thursday 10 November are coming from home and overseas, from companies and individuals concerned about the human factors on security in key areas of the offshore marine contracting industry, both in the offshore oil and gas and renewable energy sectors.Sponsored by Subsea 7, the event is a continuation of IMCA’s new series of mini-seminars – niche events tailored to tackle specific topics.

Nicolas Krmic of Subsea 7, and IMCA’s Security Workgroup Chairman, will welcome delegates – primarily security professionals, vessel security managers, academics and other interested parties; and then Chris Trelawny, Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) will provide an insight into the general state of maritime security.

The morning will then concentrate on cyber security with a 25-minute scene setter on current cyber issues, including most recent examples of attacks, but stressing the point that the biggest threat is from within – company employees (both senior and junior). Delegates will then be grouped, and each group will have a facilitator to assist in addressing the scenario-based discussion topics.

“The aim is to utilise the collective knowledge base to identify some key aspects and recommend solutions to address them,” explains IMCA’s Technical Director, Richard Benzie. “A mix of generic, individual experience and marine-specific cases and topics will be developed by the groups. Topics already identified include:

  • Senior management viewpoint
  • Juniors’ viewpoint
  • What can be done?
  • Is there a need for more industry agreement and/or effort?
  • Does the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (or STCW) Security Awareness Training need to be adjusted?

“More topics will be revealed on the day,” he adds. “And the decisions and conclusions drawn will be recorded on flip charts, for discussions at subsequent IMCA seminars to help to determine our future work programme.”

The afternoon will be devoted to ‘Global risk exposure: The changing face of employers’ duty of care’ with Rob Taylor of Alert 24 setting the scene with a presentation on the duty of care concerns in the modern security environment. He will be supported by Rob Acker of Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance who will provide a departure from the group session in the afternoon with another presentation on the subject. Thereafter delegates will again be divided into groups to discuss topics such as:

  • How is the duty of care affected by the modern security environment?
  • How can this be approached more proactively?
  • What is needed to deal with the consequences of violent criminal acts?
  • What can companies do to contain, mitigate and defend their people?
  • How to adopt an ‘inform, prevent, respond and insure’ strategy