COSCO hit by ransomware cyberattack

COSCO, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, was partially incapacitated by a cyberattack on Tuesday.

The state-owned Chinese company’s US network was taken down by a ransomware infection, including telephone and emails. At the time of writing, the US website is still down.

However, the attack did not bring a halt to shipping operations at its Port of Long Beach terminal, with ships, trains and trucks still reportedly coming and going.

According to a port spokesperson, the attack does not appear to have affected the terminal operating system, which is on a separate network.

Credit: Juergen Lehle (modified)

“Due to the local network breakdown within our Americas region, local email and network telephone is not working properly at the moment,” COSCO said in a letter to customers. “For safety concerns, we have shut down connections with other regions for further investigations.”

The company reported stable business operations, however.

The damage is relatively minor compared to the impact of last year’s NotPetya attack, which took down Maersk and TNT Express and heavily impacted operations for months. FedEx had also been hit by ransomware earlier in the year.

(Source: Bleeping Computer, TradeWinds)