529 incidents recorded in 2023, against 117 the year before. The total is multiplied by four and a half in twelve months, and a single group accounts for most of the gap. In October, meanwhile, a bulk carrier dragged its anchor for two hundred kilometres along the floor of the Gulf of Finland.
117 incidents recorded in 2022, against 91 the year before. The rise, 29%, is the smallest of the past three years. The nature of what I record does change: until 2021 my dataset held almost nothing but extortion crime, and 2022 brings politics into it.
91 incidents recorded in 2021, against 50 the year before. Ransomware still supplies most of the volume, but two things change: Asia becomes the most affected region in my records, and part of the attacks no longer seek to be noticed at all.
Of the 50 maritime cyber incidents I recorded in 2020, 33 are ransomware. None is a ship taken over remotely. And within a single week of September, a top-tier container carrier and then the United Nations agency that regulates shipping were hit two days apart.
This article is also available in French.
Several articles ([1], [2], [3]) report a ransomware cyberattack affecting the Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten. The company is particularly well known for its cruises along the Norwegian fjords, but it also provides cargo transport services in the region. The visible phase of the attack occurred during the night of 13 - 14 December 2020.
The company’s IT systems were impacted, as well as its telephone services. At the time of the attack, the company’s website also displayed an unavailability message.
This article is also available in French.
A press release published today (24/11/2020) announced that the association France Cyber Maritime was created on 17 November 2020 to “help address the expectations of the maritime and port sectors regarding maritime cybersecurity, in a context of increasing digitalization of ships and ports, the development of drones and autonomous vessels, and the growing cyber threats affecting this strategic sector for France and Europe.”