In ship shape: How cruise ships leverage key management to improve safety and operations

Often operating as floating cities unto themselves, cruise ships represent a complex security ecosystem that requires extensive solution integration to maintain optimal efficiency. At the heart of that challenge is ensuring safe and authorized access control to a variety of parties and access levels in order to present a seamless product to the thousands of guests staying onboard. Physical key management remains a fundamental component of that, and thankfully, modern technology has evolved to meet that demand.

Turning point

A seminal moment within the cruise industry occurred in 2014, one that had a seemingly immediate impact on operations. An employee of a major cruise line violently attacked a guest in her room after he had gained access with a master key. After an investigation and trial, the assailant was found guilty of attempted murder and aggravated sexual assault and is currently serving a 30-year sentence in federal prison. The incident drew into sharp focus the importance of advanced key management and having full transparency of who has access to which key at what time. Cruise lines subsequently examined how they could avoid such an incident from ever happening again, while also improving their daily operations.

“Cabinets securely store and manage all key usage, including different access levels assigned to certain keys.”