CMA CGM targeted by hackers in new cyber attack

French container shipping major CMA CGM has been hit by a new cyber attack targeting customer information.

“A leak of data on limited customer information (first and last names, employer, position, email address and phone number) has been detected during our surveillance operations on the group’s APIs,” CMA CGM said in a notice.

“Our IT teams have immediately developed and installed security patches.”

No further details have been disclosed.

The new data security breach comes almost one year after CMA CGM was dealing with a cyber attack impacting peripheral servers.

Back then, several websites of the French liner major were down due to IT issues. These included the business sites for CMA CGM, APL, ANL and CNC.

It took several days for the container shipping giant to fully restore access to all its information systems including the group’s e-commerce sites.

Apart from the abovementioned incident, 2020 witnessed a number of maritime-related cyber attacks including those on Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Hurtigruten, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

The negative trend continued this year, too, as maritime players such as HMM and Transnet also fell victim to cyber attacks.

Such incidents show that cyber security needs to gain prominence within the sector since the ongoing digital transformation brings associated cyber threats and demands new rules and strategies.

As of January 1, 2021, the IMO requires shipowners and operators to integrate the management of cyber risks in their security practices at the next annual validation of their IMO certification. It is the first-ever regulatory framework on cyber security in the maritime industry.