The port of Nagoya, Japan's largest and busiest port, has reportedly been crippled by a Russian cyberattack that has disrupted cargo and brought operations to a standstill. This has led to supply chain disruptions for Toyota and other companies. Operators rushed to take measures to prevent wider delays in shipments. The port also became the latest well-known port to suffer a ransomware attack.
The Nagoya Port Transportation Authority said Wednesday that ransomware, which hackers use to lock access to files and systems unless payment is made, caused a serious outage at a container terminal at the port of Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture on Tuesday morning, and the port has since been unable to load or unload containers. The agency said it expects to resume operations at 8:30 a.m. local time Thursday. And the Nagoya Port Transportation Association said, 'Please understand that the start of operations may be delayed depending on the recovery of the system.' Toyota Motor Corp, the world's top-selling automaker, said Tuesday's cyber attack on the port of Nagoya would not affect shipments of new vehicles, but that import and export parts could not be loaded and unloaded at the port until the problem was resolved.
Nagoya handles about 200 million tons of cargo a year, the highest of any port in Japan. Last year, Nagoya's container throughput reached 2.68 million TEUs.
The Nagoya Port Transportation Association said it has reported the incident to police as a cyber attack. The association said fewer container ships would enter the port of Nagoya if the system outage caused container traffic in the yard area to slow down, adding that some containers unloaded before the cyber attack could not be transferred to trailers. This has led to long lines of trailers near the port.
The Nagoya Port Transportation Association said that while container ships calling at Nagoya mainly carry auto parts, they also transport food, and if the power outage lasts longer than expected, land transportation could be affected.
As more and more Asian ports automate and move away from paper documents, hackers pose a growing threat to the region's shipping networks. Cybercriminals have been targeting European ports in recent years, with pro-Russian groups claiming responsibility for last month's attack on one of Europe's largest ports. The Nagoya Port Authority said the Russian ransomware group Lockbit 3.0 was responsible for the hack, Kyodo News reported Wednesday. ransomware attackers tend to target vulnerabilities in VPNs and remote desktop protocols, said Mihoko Matsubara, chief cybersecurity strategist at NTT. Such attacks account for 80 percent of ransomware attacks in Japan, she said. 'It is crucial for companies to update or patch software used for business operations.' Matsubara said.
David Suzuki, Japan managing director of Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Blackpanda, said recent data breaches have often involved 'double extortion,' in which a ransom is demanded to recover stolen information and prevent it from being made public.
Japanese authorities say such cyberattacks are on the rise. Last year, a cyberattack on a Toyota supplier in Aichi Prefecture forced 14 of its factories to shut down operations.
Nagoya is one of several ports around the world that have recently been targeted by malware attacks. Last Christmas, hackers broke into the computer system at the Port of Lisbon in Portugal, causing operations to be disrupted for several days. In February last year, India's largest container port complex, Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNPT), faced a cyber attack that disrupted ship calls (another major port terminal under cyber attack! Facing disruptions and shutdowns). In April this year, three Canadian ports were also hit by cyber attacks. 2021, South African ports and rail companies were targeted by ransomware that cyber security experts believe is linked to organizations in Eastern Europe and Russia. In addition to ports, leading global shipping companies have also suffered national cyber attacks, and in fact, since the serious 'Petya' cyber attack on Maersk in June 2017, cybersecurity has become a highly sensitive topic at the industry level and a top operational priority for container supply chain stakeholders. Freight forwarders have not been immune to the ransomware attack on Seattle-based logistics and freight giant Expeditors (ConAgra) in February 2022, forcing the group to shut down most of its global operations. The attack affected the company's operations, including scheduling shipments or or coordinating customs and distribution delivery activities.