• ais
• authentication
• confidentiality
• cybersecurity
• maritime
• protocol
• security
• vdes

In recent years, cybersecurity of maritime communications is becoming more and more crucial for maritime industry.
The VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) standard for maritime communications has recently been proposed and among its features, there is also the possibility to implement a security layer through authentication and encryption. The standard provides some guidelines on the authentication and encryption mechanisms that compliant devices should implement, however, it leaves open the implementation details.
The purpose of this thesis, carried out at the company Thales Italia, is to design and propose a solution for security, specifically for authentication and confidentiality, of the VDES protocol. With regard to authentication a prototype has been developed and tested using open source software.
Moreover, an experimental validation has been conducted in the Thales Italia laboratory to assess the correctness, security, and performances of the implemented authentication mechanism.