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CMA CGM gets back to work after ransomware attack

CMA CGM has spent the past 24 hours trying to reassure clients that operations are carrying on and the worst effects from its ransomware attack over the past three days are over.

The French carrier became the latest big name in container shipping to reveal it had been hacked on Monday, following other leading liners including Maersk, MSC and Cosco in recent years.

From its Marseille headquarters the company issued a statement to Splash at 7pm yesterday evening stating that the malware was rapidly isolated and all necessary protection measures implemented.

All communications to and from the group are secure, including emails, transmitted files and electronic data interfaces (EDI), the company claimed, adding: “Maritime and port operations are functioning as per usual. The booking functionalities remain up and running. Alternative solutions to the e-business site are available in order to support business continuity for CMA CGM Group’s customers.”

With carriers being the victims of tailored IT attacks of late, Itai Sela, CEO and president of Israeli maritime cyber security firm Naval Dome, told Splash today: “It is imperative that they ensure their IT systems are not on the same networks as their ships OT systems. If there is no segregation or protection and OT systems are hacked then world trade could be further disrupted.”

To defend against big game ransomware gangs you must have humans actively threat hunting

Chester Wisniewski, principal research scientist at British IT firm Sophos, commented: “Controlling, updating, and securing computers is a challenge for any global company, but especially so for shipping and logistics. Security costs increase dramatically when attempting to create uniformity across such diverse environments.”

Wisniewski added: “Many companies look at the dollars being spent on security and think it is a solved problem. To effectively defend against big game ransomware gangs you must have humans actively threat hunting and manning your side of the chess board.”

CMA CGM is not the only high profile name in intentional shipping to suffer an IT outage this week. The website of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is down today, there UN body citing “technical issues” in an update on social media.

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.

Comments

  1. No, they don’t. Still not possible to get the status of shipment online. The same dummy landing page is returnee instead.

  2. Thats not true we still have our container stacked at the Dakar Port/ Senegal and we cannot get our invoices to pull out our containers since Monday and your tram doesn’t want yo use plan B to help costumers and now you telling people that everything is back to the normal.

  3. No, That’s not true.
    We have export from Jakarta, ID to SIN. ETD4 Oct and ETA5 Oct, and now our container flat-track stuck at SIN. Consignee cannot release the container until today 8 Oct. Consignee will not responsible for any demurrage or storage charges at destination due to late respond from your side.

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