ransomware

“Business as usual” for maritime cyber attackers

“Business as usual” for maritime cyber attackers

Whereas 2020 has been a highly unusual year on many parameters, unfortunately it can be said that the maritime sector is experiencing a continued barrage of cyber attacks, with some clearly being successful and disruptive.

Recent examples of victims of successful cyber attacks from within 2020 of this includes the world’s 2nd and 3rd largest container shipping lines MSC and CMA CGM, The world’s largest cruise line Carnival, Australia’s largest freight forwarder Toll (they were hit twice this year), Iran’s Shaheed Rajaee port which was brought to a standstill as well as a successful attack against the International Maritime Organization IMO itself.

Ransomware attacks on the rise

Ransomware attacks on the rise

Ransomware attacks against shipping companies have spiked in number and severity over the past year, according to security firms. Norwegian shipbuilder Vard, part of Italy’s Fincantieri, was hit last week but has declined to give details. Lars Jensen, a maritime security adviser at Danish cybersecurity firm Improsec, said there had been more cyber attacks on shipping in recent years, but an increase was hard to gauge as many attacks went unreported

Isolation and test strategies – hardening of society in the midst of Corona

Isolation and test strategies – hardening of society in the midst of Corona

The recommendations to strengthen resilience against Ransomware are somewhat similar to the Corona virus.

Ransomware strikes seemingly out of nowhere and may stay latent over a longer period of time and strike at full force, especially if countermeasures are limited and vital systems are hit.

Like the Corona virus, protecting IT has focused on minimizing the attack surface. Anti-Virus software, Firewalls, IPS/IDS, efficient backups and so forth are all part of our mitigating measures.

However, it only takes one small accident or mistakes with the mitigating measures before virus or ransomware strikes, and the organization is hit by a strong - and often rapidly spreading - infection.

We could, however, use our recently gained knowledge as a reference to mitigate, contain and reduce the spread of infection, when things go south.

Get in touch Today for a safer Tomorrow…