New wave of cyberattacks continues to impact supply chain operations

Another wave of cyber attacks akin to the WannaCry one earlier this year have impacted various types of businesses this week, with supply chain and logistics entities being no exception.

One impacted company is FedEx subsidiary TNT Express.

“The worldwide operations of its TNT Express subsidiary have been significantly affected due to the infiltration of an information system virus,” read a company statement. “While TNT Express operations and communications systems have been disrupted, no data breach is known to have occurred. The operations of all other FedEx companies are unaffected and services are being provided under normal terms and conditions.”

FedEx added that remediation steps and contingency plans are being implemented as quickly as possible, with TNT Express domestic country and regional services largely operational while slowed. The company also said that it is experiencing delays in TNT Express intercontinental services and is offering various FedEx Express services as alternatives. While FedEx said it cannot measure the financial impact of this disruption it did say it could be material.

Another affected large player is Maersk Line.

In a customer advisory issued today, Maersk said it “can confirm some of our IT and communications infrastructure have been impacted and we have proactively shut down as a security measure.

Maersk also stated in the advisory that:

• all immediate vessel operations will continue as planned, making the majority of port calls 
• access to most ports is not impacted, however some APM Terminals are affected and gates are closed;
• cargo in transit will be offloaded as planned, and import cargo will be released to credit customers; and
• Maersk is currently not able to communicate directly with customers, due to the impact on its IT and communication systems

A Bloomberg report said that the cyberattack started in Ukraine yesterday and infected computer networks and demanded $300 million in cryptocurrency to unlock their systems. And by midday Tuesday, an estimate from Kaspersky Labs said around 2,000 users has been attacked, with organizations in Russia and Ukraine being the most affected.  

“Our portal is down and we are not able to take on new orders until we get it back up,” Maersk Line Chief Commercial Officer Vincent Clerc told Bloomberg. “We’re being very cautious to ensure that as we bring the applications back up, the attack is contained and rolled back. It limits the accessibility we have at the moment.”