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Fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. Walk onto the bridge of any commercial cargo vessel and you will find an Automatic Identification System (AIS), showing the name, course and a host of other information about nearby vessels, while similar information about the ship you are on will be transmitted to those nearby vessels and on-shore installations. It is a mainstay of the modern maritime world. And yet, IT researchers have discovered that the whole system is extremely vulnerable to all sorts of cyber attacks, as listed in alarming detail in this blog.