Cyber attacks on shipping see rapid growth in numbers
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/AP/Ritzau Scanpix
Geopolitical tensions have led to a surge in cyberattacks on shipping companies. The attacks are largely coming from a small handful of dictatorship states.
The shipping industry is facing rising cyber attacks, targeting IT infrastructure and money ransom schemes.
According to researchers at Netherland’s Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the shipping industry last year faced at least 64 cyber attacks, and that is a sharp rise from earlier.
A decade earlier, in 2013, the maritime sector only suffered three cyber attacks, and zero in 2003.
The report stems from reviews of company, media and academic reports.
State-backed hackers from a small group of countries are responsible for the bulk of the cyber attacks with known assailants.
Russia tops the list, followed by China, North Korea and Iran, and they are responsible for roughly 80% of the cyber attacks that can be traced back to a known attacker.
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The increase in cyber attacks on the shipping industry comes in the wake of a rise in geopolitical tensions, and the Russian attack on Ukraine, prompting the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) to issue out a warning of targeted strikes on the rules-based world order from a small group of dictatorships.
”The international rules-based order . . . the great system [that benefited shipping]since the second world war is under threat like never before,” says Guy Platten, secretary-general at the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents shipowners controlling some 80% of the global commercial fleet.
One of the most destructive attacks was attributed to Russian agents, and it was targeted Maersk back in 20217, when IT systems were taken offline. The attack was part of a coordinated assault on a string of global companies.
Source: Shipping Watch
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