Maersk confirms cyberattack after hackers access old IT system
Shipments are not interrupted.
Image by Mariusz Bugno via Shutterstock
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- Maersk says attackers stole data from a legacy IT system inherited through an earlier acquisition.
- The company says shipments continue, and it has contained the incident.
- Cybernews researchers link the breach to LF Logistics, a supply chain provider Maersk acquired in 2022.
- A ransomware gang claims it stole over 16,000 driver passwords, but Maersk has not confirmed a link.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Hackers have broken into the digital back end of one of the world's biggest shipping companies, stealing data from a legacy system that Maersk inherited through a previous acquisition.
Older systems are almost always an open invitation for trouble. Trying to fit aging infrastructure into a modern corporate network creates a mess that tech teams struggle to manage, but attackers love to exploit.
That is the case for Maersk. The Danish shipping giant has just disclosed a cybersecurity incident after attackers accessed a legacy IT system to steal data.
The platform came with a company Maersk had previously acquired. So far, Maersk has not reported any disruption to its shipping operations or logistics network.
Maersk said its cybersecurity team discovered the breach and immediately launched an investigation. In a notice published on its website, Maersk said the incident has been contained in a timely manner.
“Our findings so far strongly suggest no sensitive data has been disclosed,” Maersk said.
The company stressed that there is no evidence that attackers reached its wider IT infrastructure or systems belonging to customers and partners. However, the investigation is still underway.
“The incident is isolated to a local system, and we have found no indication that there has been any impact on other Maersk systems or customer and partner systems that connect to Maersk through integrations such as APIs and EDI,” the company stated.
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Maersk victim of a ransomware attack?
The breach notice may point to recent claims by the WhiteArmour ransomware gang. The gang listed Maersk on its leak site, stating that it stole over 16,000 Maersk drivers' passwords stored in plain text and demanding $5 million in bitcoin.
The Cybernews research team has investigated the claims and concluded that the data breach is related to LF Logistics, a supply chain management provider acquired by Maersk in 2022.
The platform mostly holds data from other logistics companies. By exploiting admin accounts, attackers could manipulate customer account data to create or delete orders.
We have reached out to Maersk for comment on whether these two incidents are related. We will update the article once a response is received.
Headquartered in Denmark, A.P. Moller-Maersk operates in more than 130 countries and employs over 100,000 people worldwide.
Maersk is the world’s second-largest container shipping company, with roughly 14% to 15% of global capacity under its control.
