Five years ago this week, Maersk said a cyber attack crippled its computer network, affecting its port terminal operations from India to the Netherlands, rippling across to nearly 60 countries and eventually causing as much as $300 million in damages.

It was, as Andy Jones refers to it in the parlance of cyber security experts, an “extinction event.”

Jones is the former chief information security officer at Maersk Line, and he has a podcast that recounts the event that unfolded and is worth listening to for advice on how to deal with hacking threats and actual intrusions.

The NotPetya attack in 2017 that hit Maersk and other global businesses seems so long ago given the bust-to-boom wave the shipping industry has ridden since then. Imagine if something that widespread happened today, as ports still struggle with economic imbalances caused by the pandemic.

Cyber threats are nothing new to maritime shipping and logistics more broadly. Every month seems to bring another event. Last week, UK delivery giant Yodel said its systems were compromised, though a spokesman said Monday the delivery network and customer service functions were fully operational.

Warning Flare

Now some experts, including a top US Coast Guard official, are sounding the alarm again about the rising risks not just on land, but on ships themselves. Such potential breaches of operational technology could do huge economic damage at a time when global supply chains are already frayed. (Click here for the full story today.)

Shipping is using much of its windfall profits from the pandemic era to upgrade technology, creating more digital linkages from land to water that are both a welcome step in a paper-laden business and a worry unless cyber precautions are taken.

“Ships and their systems were never designed to be connected in this manner and even a modern ship is a patchwork of different systems from different manufacturers who have all taken cyber security in various degrees of seriousness,” Jones said via email. “Some operators have taken this seriously, but with substantial fleets and ships that are probably over 30 years old, it is a very tall order.”

Across industry and government, there’s agreement that there needs to be more unified approach and more information sharing.

“Everybody needs to be all-in in this game and understand when there are vulnerabilities — getting that information out quickly is going to be thing that continues to help us close doors,” US Coast Guard Real Admiral Wayne Arguin told Bloomberg.

—Brendan Murray in London

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-06-28/supply-chain-latest-ships-embracing-tech-upgrades-see-cyber-risks-rise