"It's time to do something, because the shipping industry is still lagging behind, technologically," said Neptune Cyber's technological director, Jeremy Citone. "It's time for the shipping industry to catch up." Critical ship components, including navigation and motors, are more and more connected to the internet in order to diagnose problems at a distance and avoid having to send a repairperson onto a ship that could be half a world away. But systems connected to the internet can become potentially attractive targets for hackers, who could try to paralyze a ship in the hopes of extracting a large ransom from the owner.