Modern ports rely on digital networks connecting operational technology (OT), logistics platforms and customs systems. These connections drive efficiency but also increase the exposure of critical infrastructure to cyberattacks.
A disruption at a port is more than a cybersecurity incident. It can delay exports, affect manufacturing schedules, disrupt supply chains and create broader economic consequences.
The importance of connected trade networks is hardly new. More than 800 years ago, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe traded ivory and gold through networks reaching the Indian Ocean coast and beyond. Its success depended on maintaining connections with the wider world. Today, those connections are digital as well as physical.
For a major trade gateway such as Durban, protecting the technology supporting cargo movements is essential. The OT and Internet of Things systems used across port infrastructure, facilities and vessels have become targets for cybercriminals.
Fortinet’s global 2026 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report, drawing on insights from more than 700 industrial security professionals worldwide, identifies phishing and ransomware as the most commonly reported attacks affecting OT environments – at 76% and 50% respectively.
The report also points to an increase in longer-running attacks that can remain inside a network for weeks or months. These present a particularly difficult problem for infrastructure that cannot simply be switched off for inspection.
Equipment is also being refreshed faster than security is maturing to match it, according to the research. Two years ago, one in five organisations surveyed reported industrial control systems less than five years old. This year, the proportion is two in five.
While these findings reflect industrial organisations globally, they raise an important question for ports and freight operators: Is cybersecurity keeping pace with the modernisation of cranes, gate systems and terminal software?
Nearly 90% of organisations surveyed expect new OT-specific regulation within five years, up from two-thirds a year earlier. This expectation reinforces the need to prepare although it does not in itself establish new compliance requirements for South African operators.
Regardless of when new requirements arrive, cybersecurity should no longer be treated solely as an information technology issue. For ports and logistics providers, it is a business resilience issue with direct implications for operational continuity, safety and trade.
Accountability is moving higher within organisations. In 2022, only 16% of organisations surveyed gave their chief information security officer (CISO) direct responsibility for OT. This year, the figure is 53%.
That is a sensible move but the report also records a sharp decline in the proportion of organisations rating themselves at the highest level of security maturity. Assigning responsibility needs to be accompanied by a clear understanding of the systems and risks being inherited.
A CISO taking on port or rail security risk needs to establish what is running on those networks and where vulnerabilities may lie. Without that visibility, responsibility can extend to problems that have not yet been identified.
Policies alone are insufficient. Port and terminal operators can still leave themselves exposed if patching schedules slip, remote access is inadequately controlled or nobody has properly mapped which OT assets sit on which network.
The practical test is whether policies help keep operations running when systems are attacked.
For mining, agriculture and manufacturing exporters who depend on Durban, Ngqura and the rail corridors feeding them, disruption can affect operations within hours or days. Delayed cargo movements can quickly translate into interrupted production, missed schedules and additional costs.
Mapungubwe’s success depended on maintaining trusted connections with the wider world. Today’s trade networks create new opportunities but also new risks. Protecting the systems underpinning them is as important as maintaining the physical infrastructure through which goods move.
