As reported by Infosecurity, the United Nations agency for international shipping came under cyber-attack at the end of last week, forcing a number of services offline, it has emerged. Headquartered in London, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is responsible for the regulation, safety and security of global shipping.
However, it revealed in a tweet last Wednesday that its website was “undergoing some technical issues.” It admitted a day later that these had actually been caused by malicious actors. In a longer announcement on Friday recapping the incident, the IMO said its Global Integrated Shipping Information Systems (GISIS) database, document repository IMODOCS, and its Virtual Publications service had been affected by the attack but were now restored.
IMO public website is currently undergoing some technical issues, our team is working to fix it and hopefully we will be back and running shortly. Thank you for your understanding.
— IMO (@IMOHQ) September 30, 2020
Although this bears the hallmarks of a ransomware attack, it must never assumed until it has been revealed. However, companies must start to learn the importance of owning up to such attacks as they will almost always come out in the long run. Ransomware can be damaging to a business but reporting it early on can often lend help from other organisations and agencies in getting business back up and running.