Securing Digital Corridors Under Hybrid Threats:Extending SDAF to Cybersecurity Governance of Critical Maritime Infrastructure in Geopolitical Flux

Maritime ports—now deeply digitalized andinterdependent—face escalating cyber risk amid hybridgeopolitical pressures, complex vendor ecosystems, andwidening social dependence on uninterrupted trade flows.Situated at the intersection of the Belt and Road Initiative andthe Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, the CaspianBasin exemplifies both the promise of data-driven logistics andthe vulnerability of fragmented cybersecurity governance. Thisstudy extends the Strategic Data Alignment Framework(SDAF), originally designed to align corporate strategy withdata governance, into a cybersecurity governance model forcritical maritime infrastructure under hybrid threat conditions.Using comparative policy analysis and benchmarking againstcontemporary global standards (e.g., NIS2-style obligations,maritime cyber guidelines, and digital trade principles), thestudy identifies systemic weaknesses in harmonization,institutional capacity, supply-chain assurance, and resilienceplanning. It reconceptualizes cyber-resilience as a strategicresource and proposes a five-step roadmap combining regionalthreat-intelligence sharing, vendor risk controls, standardsalignment, AI-enabled detection, and stress-tested recovery.The findings underscore urgent needs for coordinated action tosafeguard digital corridors and the societies they serve.