Australian ports are offline for several days due to cyber attack

The Australian ports of DP World, the country’s second largest port operator, are the target of a cyber attack. As a result, the manager has largely halted work in its ports. According to Australia, the ports may remain closed for several more days.

The cyber attack was discovered on Friday evening, after which all internet traffic in the affected ports was shut down as a precaution to prevent unauthorized network access. This concerns the container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle. As a result, it is currently not possible to collect the freight from the ships, and for trucks to reach and leave the ports, said Independent.

Late Saturday Australia’s national cyber security coordinator, Darren Goldie, said the outage is likely to “continue for several days and impact exports and imports of goods.” About forty percent of Australia’s freight traffic takes place through DP World’s ports. By the way According to DP World, it is still possible to process incoming sensitive cargo in the ports.

It is still unclear who is behind the cyber attack. The Australian Police do according to Goldie currently investigating the circumstances of the incident. It is therefore still unclear what type of attack this is, and whether ransomware, for example, is involved. DP World is also still determining the effects of the attack on its systems and data, the company said to Bloomberg.