Shipping giant Maersk probes 'IT security incident,' data theft

Shipping behemoth A.P. Moller-Maersk says it is investigating "an IT security incident" involving the potential theft of data from a legacy system.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Denmark-based shipping, cargo, and logistics giant confirmed it immediately launched an investigation into the attack and the affected system was secured.

"Our findings so far strongly suggest no sensitive data has been disclosed," the company said.

"The incident is isolated to a local system, and we have found no indication that there has been any impact on other Maersk systems or customer and partner systems that connect to Maersk through integrations such as APIs and EDI."

Maersk described the legacy local system as one "from a previous acquisition," and said it does not expect the attack to have an effect on operations.

Customers were reassured that they can continue to use Maersk platforms to manage their shipments as usual, and to expect updates from the company as and when they're available.

"Cybersecurity remains a constant, ongoing priority for Maersk," it added. "We have rigorous processes in place to identify and prevent incidents and minimize customer impact.

"As always, please treat any unexpected communications claiming to relate to this matter with caution and verify them through your usual Maersk contact.

"Thank you for your patience as we continue to investigate the incident."

Fortunately for those who immediately feel uneasy after hearing "Maersk" and "IT security" mentioned in the same breath, the wording of the shipping giant's disclosure suggests this intrusion won't be as calamitous as the NotPetya disaster in 2017.

Mimicking the Petya ransomware strain, NotPetya was an infamous destructive wiper malware strain that wormed its way across the global economy.

Western intelligence agencies attributed the malware to Russia's Sandworm group, an outfit believed to be part of the country's military intelligence service (GRU).

Maersk said at the time that it expected the attack to result in a circa $300 million bill, owing to remediation and rebuild costs.

Offering a sense of scale, Jim Hagemann Snabe, then chair of Maersk, told World Economic Forum delegates in 2018 that the company's rebuild encompassed 4,000 new servers, 45,000 new PCs, and 2,500 applications - which he said had been completed over just ten days.

In 2020, as exclusively revealed by The Register, Maersk went on to lay off around 150 staffers from its command and control center in Maidenhead, England. The staffers who lost their jobs had played key roles in the recovery. (R)