Australia: Cyber Attack Brings Ports To Their Knees For Tree days

Australian ports are back online after a hacker attack brought DP World’s terminals, which are involved in moving 40% of the country’s freight, to their knees for three days.

The operator said it had resumed operations at the ports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Fremantle on Monday, November 13.

The cyber-attack has hit the entire sector since last Friday, an important time with Christmas approaching. The disruption meant containers could be unloaded from ships, but trucks could not load and unload goods.

According to the Sidney Herald, 30,000 containers have been blocked over the past three days. DP World Australia did not provide further information about the incident, explaining that “investigations are ongoing, and measures to protect networks and systems may cause some unforced temporary outages.”

In recent weeks, DP World Australia has had several disputes with unions, resulting in work delays. According to the Australian Financial Review, the union has announced that it will continue to strike, despite the problems caused by the hacker attack: on Friday, November 24, workers will stop working for 24 hours.

In Australia, the attack on the ports came a few days after an attack on the Optus telecommunications network, which affected nearly 10 million customers. This raises questions about the vulnerability of critical infrastructures.

“We propose legislative changes to ensure our telecommunications networks are held to the same standards as other critical infrastructure, including the requirement of a risk management program to plan for the full range of threats they face,” said Australian Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neill on X social media. “This incident is a reminder of the serious risk cyberattacks pose to our country and the critical infrastructure we rely on.”