Cyber Perils Leading Cause of Concern For Business
Expeditors is scrambling to get its operations back up and running after a cyberattack that struck the global logistics specialist on 20 February shut down most of its online network.
In a latest update, the US-based company said it was making progress in returning to normal operations, with cybersecurity teams “working around the clock” to put in place immediate and longer-term solutions to restore its systems.
“We are now handling shipments and providing services across most products and expanding recovery across our locations,” Expeditors said in a filing on 28 February.
“We recognize the challenges this incident has created within supply chains,” it added.
The cyberattack two weeks ago forced the company to close down a chunk of its global operating systems, temporarily limiting its ability to conduct forwarding activities or offer clients customs and distribution services.
A thorough investigation was being carried out to determine what happened, it said.
Expeditors is not the only logistics company to have recently suffered cyberattacks.
In December, Germany’s Hellman Worldwide Logistics said an attack had forced it to temporarily disconnect all connections to its central data centre, while Australian forwarder Toll Group suffered two major ransomware attacks in 2020 that disabled its IT systems.
Since 2017, the world’s four largest shipping companies – APM-Maersk, MSC, Cosco and CMA CGM – have all suffered cyberattacks.
In its 2022 risk barometer, Germany-based insurer Allianz said cyber perils have outranked Covid-19 and broken supply chains as the world’s number one business risk. Allianz’s barometer is based on insight from more than 2,650 risk management experts from 89 countries.
“The threat of ransomware attacks, data breaches or major IT outages worries companies even more than business and supply chain disruption, natural disasters or the Covid-19 pandemic, all of which have heavily affected firms in the past year,” Allianz said.
