Thursday, September 27, 2018

Port Of San Diego Hit By Ransomware Attack, Systems Offline

The Port of San Diego says it has been hit by a ransomware attack, which has disrupted the port's information technology systems--although it says that ships and boats are able to continue to access the port at the moment. According to the Port of San Diego, an unknown group is holding the port's IT systems hostage, requesting a payment in Bitcoin. The Port said it is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on investigating the "serious" cybersecurity incident, which was first reported on Tuesday. The Port did not say how much in Bitcoin was requested to unlock its systems, and also did not provide any details on who unleashed the ransomware attack on the port. The maritime industry is not a stranger to ransomware attacks: just last year, in 2017, shipping giant Maersk was crippled by the NotPetya ransomware attack, forcing the company to fall back on tracking shipments using handwritten notes; that attack forced Maersk to replace 45,000 PCs and 4,000 servers in order to recover from the attack. A similar ransomware attack also hit Chinese shipping firm Cosco earlier this year.