The world’s largest container shipping group, Maersk, has been hit by a major cyber attack that is affecting a number of major companies around the world, with Maersk’s IT systems down across multiple sites and business units.

In a statement last week, parent company A.P. Møller-Mærsk confirmed that Maersk had been hit as part of a global cyber attack named Petya on the 27 June 2017, saying: “We have contained the issue and are working on a technical recovery plan with key IT-partners and global cyber security agencies. We have shut down a number of systems to help contain the issue”.

He continued: “Access to most ports is not impacted, however some APM Terminals are affected and gates are closed. Cargo in transit will be offloaded as planned. Import cargo will be released to credit customers”.

At present, subsidiaries Maersk Oil, Maersk Drilling, Maersk Supply Services, Maersk Tankers, Maersk Training, Svitzer and MCI are not operationally affected, although the group said precautionary measures have been taken to ensure continued operations.

The Petya attack began in Ukraine, with major impacts in Russia and Poland, and is designed to spread with speed. The attack is thought to have disrupted 17 of APMT’s terminals, including Los Angeles, Rotterdam and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, leading to some confusion and congestion. The hackers have demanded a $300 bitcoin payment – however the email client being used (German firm Posteo) has closed the address listed so payments cannot be made.

Maersk partner MSC has confirmed that it is not under attack from Petya, and that it is offering its full support to Maersk Line at this time; working together to find other means to transmit data between the two companies.

Fear of cyber attacks has grown recently in the logistics industry. It rose to sixth on the list of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2017,after entering the list in 2014.

Uniserve and the One World Supply Chain Management platform have a robust security regime and are taking these attacks extremely seriously, especially on carriers and ensuring that its customers and their cargo are not affected going forward.

Steve Ireland Uniserve’s Ocean Director commented: ‘’Hopefully Maersk will be operational as soon as possible, they are key to many retailers’ and importers’ supply chains. We have contingency plans in place should these issue continue for too long with Maersk”.

UPDATE (Wed 5 July): Maersk says it has now restored its major applications, as it brings its IT systems back online after being hit by the major cyber attack last week. “Today we can finally reopen our key applications,” Maersk said in a statement on Monday. The company, which handles one in seven containers shipped globally, said it expects to have all its 1,500 applications fully functional within a week.