Shipping company Cosco appears to have been infected by ransomware affecting its US base, although the company has so far denied it and is trying to hide the details. Reports from internal emails suggest that the network has likely been affected by ransomware, and the company is asking its employees not to open suspicious emails.
However, an official statement from the company issued yesterday does not mention ransomware as the cause of their problem. “Due to technical problems with our local network at our headquarters in the US, telephony and emails have been disabled. For security reasons, we have temporarily terminated our connection to the rest of the company’s branches around the world until the problem is resolved.”
“So far, our company is operating normally and our main systems are running stably. We are pleased to inform you that we have taken drastic measures. The temporary shutdown due to local network problems, in cooperation with the remaining branches, will resume very soon.”
In fact, there are reports that the company was forced to communicate with customers only by phone to avoid completely shutting down operations until the damage was repaired. If the reports are true, then the incident is very reminiscent of the malware breach that occurred about a year ago at Maersk, which cost the company about 300 million.
This event is another reminder that even colossal companies like Cosco and Maersk can be "infected." Thus, it is necessary to provide for and secure data and computer systems by investing in cybersecurity.
