Cyber piracy appears to be on the rise in the shipping industry following news of a new breach – this time affecting the International Maritime Organization’s IT systems, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Cyber attacks are not new to the industry, with the Maersk attack in 2017 costing an estimated $500million. It took the line eight days to mostly restore functions and four to five weeks to recover fully.
Speaking during a security conference last year, Lewis Woodcock, head of cybersecurity compliance at Moller-Maersk, said” the severity became clear when walking through the offices and seeing banks and banks of screens, all black. there was a moment of disbelief, initially, at the sheer ferocity and the speed and scale of the attack and the impact it had."
Now it’s CMA CGM and the IMO who are picking up the pieces and attempting to restore networks and assess the damage.
According to the Bloomberg report, the world’s fourth-largest line said on Thursday that offices were gradually being reconnected to the network, thus improving the booking and documentation processing times.
The cyber attacks are adding to the shipping line’s Covid-related headaches which have thrown schedules out of kilter and wreaked havoc on supply chains.
Bloomberg quotes Lars Jensen, CEO and founder of SeaIntelligence Consulting in Copenhagen, as saying that he assumed the IMO’s problems were of “minor practical consequence”.
CMA CGM is now in its fifth day of dealing with the breach.
“It appears for now that marine operations are functioning for CMA CGM and therefore the main impact is more likely to be felt in CMA CGM’s commercial sections,” Jensen said.
