Ransomware Sinks a Shipping Firm

China Ocean Shipping Company, COSCO, a global shipping firm, was left red-faced when it recently became a victim of a potent ransomware. Going by the official statement, the organisation is making recoveries from a ransomware attack that affected its computer networks in America. Branches in Canada, Peru, Panama and other South American countries also experienced system failures and network breakdowns.

While the shipping activities have not been affected by the cyber-attack, the ransomware has infected the phone and email networks. In a Facebook post, the company declared that their main business operations are functioning. Other offices have cut off all channels of communication, such as emails and VoIP from the affected networks to contain the spreading of the infection. The IT unit is conducting an investigation in the compromise and cleaning up the system networks entirely. Not much is known about the type of ransomware responsible for this attack, but the culprit has been identified as a Windows malware.

The technical experts are sweeping the networks while the operational charge has shifted to nearby regions that are unaffected by the attack. Remote access facilities are being utilized to ensure that customers enjoy uninterrupted services.

The press release explained the status of the network and apologized for the delay in providing the services. While the official website and emails have become inoperable, the employees are responding to customer requests and queries using their public Yahoo accounts. In fact, the dedicated officials are reaching out to their customers through social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.Keeping the outbreak in view, instructions were issued to COSCO employees asking them to not open any seemingly suspicious mails as they may have malicious content.

Such an incident is not a rare occurrence since AP Moller-Maersk, a leading shipping company, also faced a ransomware attack in the previous year. The NotPetya/WannaCry outbreak had resulted in Maersk vessels being left stranded at the ports and the LA port was shut down for 3 days. Thus, on comparative terms, the attack on COSCO is not as severe as the NotPetya/WannaCry attack on Maersk. The company hopes to make a full and quick recovery in the soonest possible time and resume offering its services to their clients.

Jack Tucker is a Microsoft Office expert and has been working in the technical industry from last 10 year. As a technical expert, he has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as office.com/setup.