Maritime sector’s shipping and supply chain ‘next playground for hackers’

The London-based International Maritime Bureau (IMB) is calling for vigilance and timely response in the maritime sector, advising that shipping and the supply chain looks to be the “next playground for hackers.”

“Recent events have shown that systems managing the movement of goods need to be strengthened against the threat of cyber-attacks,” notes a posting last week on IMB’s website. “It is vital that lessons learnt from other industrial sectors are applied quickly to close down cyber vulnerabilities in shipping and the supply chain.”

IMB points out that concerns have been voiced over dangers posed by criminals targeting carriers, ports, terminals and other transport operators.

The bureau cites recent comments made by Mike Yarwood, insurance claims expert for TT Club, which specializes in the insurance of intermodal operators, NVOCs (non vessel operating common carriers), freight forwarders, logistics operators, marine terminals, stevedores, port authorities and ship operators. Speaking at the recent TOC Container Supply Chain Europe Conference in London, Yarwood said incidents that initially appear to be petty break-ins at office facilities with minimal damage, upon further investigation, have revealed “the ‘thieves’ were actually installing spyware within the operator’s IT network.” Or thieves target individuals’ personal devices.

By using social networks, he explained that hackers can target truck drivers and operational personnel, looking to ascertain routing and overnight parking patterns, and extracting information such as release codes for containers from terminal facilities or passwords to discover delivery instructions.

“In instances discovered to date, there has been an apparent focus on specific individual containers in attempts to track the units through the supply chain to the destination port. Such systematic tracking is coupled with compromising the terminal’s IT systems to gain access to, or generate release codes for, specific containers,” Yarwood reported.

The posting also cites a June report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, in which it warned about the possible threats to U.S. ports.