Dubai: Canadian miner Nautilus Minerals and Dubai’s Marine Assets Corporation (MAC) have revealed they have been the victims of a $10m cyber attack. The miner pre-paid $10m of an $18m charterer’s guarantee intended for MAC into a false account. MAC was building a ship at China’s Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding to go on charter to Nautilus for a mining project off Papua New Guinea.
“In December 2014, it was discovered that the company and MAC had been victims of a cyber attack by an unknown third party and as a result, the company paid the Deposit to a bank account which it believed to be MAC’s, but which MAC has advised was not its account,” Nautilus said in a release to the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The matter was promptly referred to the police authorities in the relevant jurisdictions and an investigation is underway.
Construction of the vessel continues so that it can achieve its goal of making seafloor mining a reality by early 2018.
Shipping is an increasing target for hackers.
Speaking with our sister site, Maritime CEO, last October, Lars Jensen, founder of online protection organisation, CyberKeel, warned that virtually all aspects of the maritime IT infrastructure are vulnerable to exploitation.
Examples of actual cyber attacks include recent attacks aimed at the interface between shipping lines and bunker companies resulting in the loss of millions of dollars, a shipping line losing all information as to the whereabouts of their cargo, information theft as well as the use of Facebook as a means of information gathering for Somali pirates. [04/02/15]
