Cyber Attacks Underscore Risks To Maritime Shipping Industry

With over 90% of the world’s trade being carried by sea, insurance industry analysts warn that the shipping industry is a prime target for cyber attack. Last month, a division of Danish transport company A.P. Moller-Maersk was hit by a cyber attack that affected several port terminals, including in the United States, India, Spain and the Netherlands. The computer virus, which researchers are calling Petya, began in Ukraine and affected companies in dozens of countries. Maersk said the attack had caused outages at its computer systems across the world. “The modern-day pirate is no longer going to walk onto a ship with a gun,” said Luis Gazitua, a partner at JAG Insurance Group in Coral Gables, Florida.