By Alex Lennane (TheLoadstar) The shipping industry must learn from last week’s cyber attack on Maersk, say analysts, and the line’s chief commercial officer, Vincent Clerc, said the line would “have to ask ourselves some tough questions”.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Clerc said the company had focused on trying to restore normal operations, but as the situation improved, it would start to investigate the attack further.
On its website this morning, Maersk said in a note to customers that most of its main applications were back up and running, adding: “We will also diligently work through the six days of backlog which needs to be cleared in order to give you the full transparency you expect.”
It also issued an update on APMT’s terminals, which reveals that Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte II continues to be the most affected, with no rail or marine services, and limited gate services – the terminal is operating at 15% of its normal services.
The port of Gothenburg is operating manually, with limited services; Poti, Aarhus and Algeciras are also impacted, while in North America, Los Angeles, Mobile, Port Elizabeth and South Florida are also running manually.
Lars Jensen, CEO of CyberKeel and SeaIntelliegence, said some phone systems were still down and bills of lading unavailable in some places.
Mr Jensen warns, in a blog this morning, that weak security is endemic in the shipping industry: some 44% of carriers show “signs of low levels of cyber security related to very basic elements”.
He notes that one top-20 carrier allows shippers on its e-commerce platform to use “x” as a password. Another top five carrier states that “12345” would be a medium-strength password.
Mr Jensen points out that the fact the attack spread laterally through Maersk’s different business units shows that the firm’s level of security was not high enough.
“It is crucial that the maritime companies look at the Maersk case and learn from it, and create more robust and resilient systems – otherwise this will not be the last time we see such challenges.”
iContainers said the industry should heed the warning, adding that IT systems could be hit by something as simple as opening an infected email, so staff should be warned.
“After years of low earnings and huge losses, some [shipping lines] may not have been as diligent on their security as they perhaps should have been,” said Klaus Lysdal, vice president of sales and operations.
“Maersk stands to lose a substantial amount of money from this attack, which hopefully will spur every carrier to intensify their security measures.
“Considering the importance and value of what the industry does, it is ill-prepared for an attack such as this. One would have thought that Maersk was perhaps the carrier with the highest level of protection,” he added.
A day after the C-Lion1 and BCS subsea data cables in the Baltic Sea, connecting Finland and Germany as well as Sweden and Lithuania, were damaged, specifics of the incident remain unconfirmed.
The damaging of two undersea telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea should be presumed to be sabotage, Germany said on Tuesday, while Lithuania's armed forces boosted surveillance of its waters in response.
The U.S. Coast Guard Station Mayport responded to a dredger fire on Saturday afternoon. The fire was reported in the engine room of the Stuyvesant, a 340-foot dredger, near the...
November 4, 2024
Total Views: 2295
Why Join the gCaptain Club?
Access exclusive insights, engage in vibrant discussions, and gain perspectives from our CEO.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.