2023 GMTSC SYMPOSIUM

Dr Vera Zhang

Senior Lecturer, Centre for Maritime and Logistics, Australian Maritime College (AMC) – University of Tasmania

Dr Vera Zhang is a Senior Lecturer in the Australian Maritime College within the University of
Tasmania. Vera has conducted a research project on evaluating cybersecurity in the maritime
industry funded by International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU) in 2019-2020. The
research identified risk factors influencing cybersecurity in maritime operations, evaluated the
importance of the identified risk factors and provided solutions to controlling the identified risk
factors.

Vera is currently leading a research grant 2023-2034 funded IAMU about the impact of innovative
Industry 4.0 technologies on port resilience. Technologies are like a double-edged sword and may
increase the vulnerabilities of ports to new and emerging threats such as cyber-attacks.
Therefore, the research intends to investigate both the positive as well as negative impacts of
Industry 4.0 technologies on the resilience of ports.