Baltimore port deemed secure by Coast Guard

The port of Baltimore’s public marine terminals have earned a positive security assessment from the Coast Guard for the sixth year in a row, the Maryland Port Administration announced Thursday.

The port’s public terminals include Seagirt, Dundalk, North and South Locust Point, Cruise Maryland, Fairfield and Masonville.

The port also received a positive evaluation by representatives from the European Commission “conducting a review of the United States’ enforcement of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code,” the port administration said.

The Baltimore port was the first in the nation to undergo such a joint review.

Coast Guard Captain of the Port Kevin C. Keifer said in a letter to James J. White, executive director of the port administration, that the port staff’s “proficiency and firm commitment to security at all of your port facilities led to a positive assessment of the United States from the European Commission.”

Keifer also wrote that the port administration’s efforts “to renovate facilities while also establishing more effective security risk mitigation strategies has demonstrated your continued dedication to securing your facilities.”

Since 2007, the port has received $12 million in federal security grants to upgrade its security measures, the port administration said.

This summer, a Brookings Institution report found that ports across the country — including Baltimore’s — were vulnerable to cyberattacks.

At the time, port officials said the port takes cybersecurity seriously and that the author of the report was not told about all precautions being taken.