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Excerpts from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44397872:

Mr Munro's company, Pen Test Partners, has made limited details of the hack public to coincide with London's Infosecurity Europe exhibition, where he is showing off his work.

The attack targets a computer-powered navigation system called the Electronic Chart Display (Ecdis)....

"Ecdis feeds the automatic identification system (AIS) transceiver on many new ships," he said.

"...So, AIS collision alarms would be firing on numerous ships and many would then simply avoid the area completely.

"It would make for a very brave captain to continue on course while the alert was sounding."

The consequence, he added, was a hacker could effectively shut down the Channel's shipping lanes.

"...Even if the vulnerabilities aren't taken advantage of in the way Mr Munro mentioned, there are probably many other ways they could be," said Dr Kimberley Tam.

Hackers could still cause damage and disruption, she said, even if shutting down the Channel completely was unlikely.

"We may not be able to secure all the systems, because they just weren't designed with cyber-security in mind," she said.