Marine industry is least considered with slow technological advancement getting more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Recently Maersk, an esteemed well reputed precursor in Marine industry, had undergone a massive attack that drastically wedged the booking system and container tracking. This resulted in heavy congestion in 80 ports operated by its allied company APM as well. It took three long days to resume back to normalcy in operations.
If a Maritime giant like Maersk had undergone such a worst nightmare then what would be with other small carriers and what would be the situation with freight forwarders who handle people private sensitive data such as credit card details.
Many industry experts revealed that carrier market is less competitive and has more potential to invest in technology, whereas this may not be the case with freight forwarders since freight forwarding companies face fierce competition with narrow profit margins. Besides that freight industry’s “people first” approach prevails over technological initiatives. Thus, a huge gap prevails between technology and Freight forwarding industry though they handle more sensitive Public’s data.
The main consequence observed in the industry’s digital transformation and automation is risk of cyber-attacks. There are more attacks expected in the forthcoming days targeting the vulnerable. To cope with such attacks we have presented below some measures that are cost intensive and compared against some less cost intensive solutions to choose from.
Measures to cope and curb Cyber-attack:
Cyber experts say that the measures can be segregated into strategic and Operational.
As a strategic measure it is mandatory and advised to integrate a cyber security protection into all system in org level as risk management measure. Many potential service providers offer such services at affordable rates even an option of monthly subscription is available.
Furthermore, a recent research revealed that most of the attacks get initiated by an Email that persuaded the user to open and then aggravated the attacks after entering their systems.
Therefore, there need to be a basic “Cyber Hygiene” protocols to be put in place and needs to be followed to protect systems. From such “Operational hygiene” methods the system develops resistance to random virus penetrations.
Freight forwarding industry, if more cynical about investing in expensive security services for the fear of ROI, can opt for the basic operational approach at the least to protect their systems from harm’s way.
Basic operational approach which includes the following:
- Strict stringent policies to be implemented to protect Network access control
- Frequent data archives to be done at strict regular periodical shorter intervals
- Updating of software is done more frequently
- More awareness to be inculcated for field employees and others in handling Emails and usage of hardwares such as USB drives, hard discs etc.
- Highly secured user access controls.
- Strict policy to ensure the confidentiality of the user credentials
- Frequent changing of user credentials
- Maintain a log with a designated accounting officer to ensure compliance of the protocols
As an adage goes, “A stitch in time saves nine” here by adapting an appropriate measure at the earliest as explored above can protect from more costly damage and downtime. Many such threats are expected in the near future. Protection from viral attacks not only enables us to avoid monetary losses but also ensures to serve the customers in time without disruption thereby increases the company’s reputation.
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