German liner Hapag-Lloyd has notified the market that the company is possibly the target of a spear phishing attack after its IT security team found a copy of its website.
“This means that e-mails are used to redirect users to this site and when they log in with their personal access data, which are then tapped by criminals. This kind of fake websites are usually a one-to-one copy of the real pages and can therefore usually only be recognised as malicious pages via the domain or Internet address,” the Hamburg-based carrier said in a statement.
The company warned its customers to check whether the links they receive in e-mails are actually linked to the correct website and have been called up before entering personal access data, as well as to use a phishing mail analyser. In addition, the liner advised a change to login credentials on its website and extra caution when viewing products and services.
All of the world’s top liners – MSC, Maersk, Cosco and CMA CGM – have suffered hacks in recent years, leading to massive losses. Shipping has been warned to be on high alert for cyber attacks in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Maritime cyber security expert Lars Jensen, commenting via LinkedIn, pointed out: “Note that an attack such as the one described is not because someone has penetrated Hapag-Lloyd’s systems but because someone has created a cloned site where they want to trick people into giving away user login details.”
Meanwhile, cash buyer Best Oasis also flagged a spear phishing attack. “It has come to our attention that a cyber fraud is being perpetrated by someone replicating our website and claiming to be Best Oasis Limited,” the company said.
