Cyber Attack Disrupts South African Ports, Brings Down Systems

A cyber attack has caused disruptions in container operations at the South African port of Cape Town. The busiest shipping terminal of sub-Saharan Africa, Durban, had been greatly impacted.

Cape Town Harbour Carriers Association informed members that the port operating systems had been prey to cyber-attacks. So, cargo movement will be on hold until the system has been restored.

On Thursday, Transnet’s website was down. It kept displaying an error message. Transnet operates major South African ports, including Cape Town, Durban, and a railway network that transports commodities for export.

All these confirmed that its IT applications had been experiencing disruptions. It also mentioned that it had been trying to identify the reason behind it.

It refused to disclose whether a cyberattack had caused the massive disruption. The sources mentioned that the attack had occurred on Thursday.

Image Credits: SkyPixels / Wikimedia.org

The state-owned company had encountered major disruptions to its ports and national freight rail line over the previous week following days of violence and unrest in many parts of the country.

The latest disruption delayed auto parts and containers but commodities had been unaffected as they were in a different part of the port. It will result in backlogs that may take significant time to clear.

Transnet has reportedly said that its container terminals had been disrupted. However, its engineering, freight rail, pipeline, and property divisions would be continuing with normal activities.

Reference: nasdaq.com

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Source: Maritime Shipping News