After DEF CON: What the Maritime Hacking Village Revealed About Real-World ICS Risk
- S1E18
- 30:27
- August 14th 2025
DEF CON 33 put the maritime industry in the hacker’s crosshairs for the first time and the results were eye-opening. In this episode of Exploited: The Cyber Truth, host Paul Ducklin sits down with Joe Saunders, CEO of RunSafe Security, and RunSafe’s Shiv Saxena to unpack what happened inside the Maritime Hacking Village and what it means for the future of industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) security.
From breaking into an autonomous narco sub and a real-world port crane to candid discussions about legacy system vulnerabilities, the conversation dives into the most surprising takeaways from Las Vegas—and why they matter for national security.
You’ll hear:
- What DEF CON revealed about ICS and OT risks
- How maritime pros are rethinking security priorities
- Why legacy code and memory safety remain urgent challenges
- The role public hacking events play in strengthening critical infrastructure defenses
Whether you were there in person or following from afar, this insider debrief delivers lessons every security leader can act on now.
Exploited: The Cyber Truth
Exploited: The Cyber Truth is a hard-hitting, no-fluff podcast exposing the realities of today’s cyber threat landscape and risks to critical infrastructure. Through candid conversations with top cybersecurity experts, industry leaders, and frontline defenders, the show breaks down recent high-profile vulnerabilities and exploits and covers innovative strategies used to stop them. To keep critical infrastructure safe, defenders need the upper hand. Tune in and get the cyber truth.