{"id":18650,"date":"2020-10-02T01:09:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/imo-cyberattack-has-serious-implications\/18650\/"},"modified":"2020-10-02T01:09:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:09:19","slug":"imo-cyberattack-has-serious-implications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/imo-cyberattack-has-serious-implications\/18650\/","title":{"rendered":"IMO Cyberattack Has Serious Implications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>For the past day and a half, visitors to the official International Maritime Organization website, www.IMO.org, have been greeted with the message \u201cThis website is under maintenance.\u201d But the maintenance is not routine, it\u2019s the result of <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/international-maritime-organization-hit-by-cyber-attack\/\">a cyber attack<\/a>\u00a0and comes at a time when the <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/fail-forbes-wakashio-salvage-oil\/\">IMO is under intense scrutiny,<\/a>\u00a0is <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/is-today-world-maritime-day-or-maritime-fail-day\/\">working to bring attention to the global crew crisis,<\/a>\u00a0and is asking member nations to enforce \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/tag\/imo2021\/\">IMO 2021<\/a>\u201c, a resolution requiring ship owners to invest in cybersecurity measures.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/international-maritime-organization-hit-by-cyber-attack\/\">The attack<\/a>\u00a0also comes just days after <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/shipping-giant-cma-cgm-hit-by-cyber-attack\/\">Shipping Giant CMA CGM was hit by a ransomware cyberattack<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat could have motivated these attacks?\u201d asks Dr Will Perez, Director of Cybersecurity Solutions at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morancyber.com\">Moran Cyber<\/a>. \u00a0\u201cWas it a random occurrence or a targeted message to the international maritime industry?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>gCaptain first noticed the trouble early yesterday morning while following up on our recent article about the organization, which is a branch of the United Nations, <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/imo-bullies-journalists\/\">questioning the reports of journalists<\/a>. A few hours later the IMO tweeted this message:<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" type=\"ddd5a4069661415160c0b29f-text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Today the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IMOHQ\/status\/1311601524209049601?s=20\">IMO tweeted a new statement<\/a> admitting it was hacked. \u201cThe interruption of service was caused by a cyberattack against our IT systems,\u201d says the tweet. \u201cIMO is working with<br \/>\nUnited Nations IT and security experts to restore systems as soon as possible, identify the source of the attack, and further enhance security systems to prevent a recurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>An IMO spokesperson then <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/international-maritime-organization-hit-by-cyber-attack\/\">told Reuters<\/a> that internal and external emails continued to work normally and that the organization was working to restore access to public documents.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know and there is currently no hard evidence connecting this attack to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/nishandegnarain\/2020\/09\/27\/global-shipping-in-crisis-world-leaders-ignoring-the-sos\/#4a7277c2258f\">recent criticism of the IMO<\/a>\u2018s response to the <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/tag\/wakashio\/\">MV\/ Wakaship bunker spill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t know that the source of the attack but we do know it happened just weeks after over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/nishandegnarain\/2020\/09\/13\/protests-rock-mauritius-after-another-day-of-marches-against-oil-spill-response\/#5b9636d764a7\">100,000 protesters took to the streets in Mauritius to protest<\/a> the mishandling of \u00a0MV Wakashio salvage and oil recovery efforts.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>While the IMO has<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/imo-bullies-journalists\/\"> released a statement claiming their involvement in the spill was limited<\/a>, the fact remains that they are the lead UN agency in Mauritius and, in numerous videos, the IMO expert they sent to represent the organization<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/watch-an-imo-expert-give-mauritius-the-worst-advice-ever\/\"> claimed responsibilities and provided damaging advice<\/a> beyond the scope of the IMO\u2019s charter and in the wake of these massive protests, rather than correcting his errors, the organization issued a new statement saying they \u201cfully back\u201d his work. (NB: we can\u2019t link to the statement due to the website errors).<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>The situation in Mauritius has deteriorated to such an extent that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/nishandegnarain\/2020\/09\/03\/global-shippings-moral-authority-plunges-in-mauritius-as-pope-intervenes-in-wakashio-saga\/#331fb55b53a1\">Pope himself has called for more help<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Journalists too have cried numerous times for help (<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/watch-gcaptains-impassioned-call-for-change\/\">literally cried in the case of this author<\/a>). \u201cWhen the Pope has to intervene in your industry, you know you\u2019re in trouble.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/nishandegnarain\/2020\/09\/03\/global-shippings-moral-authority-plunges-in-mauritius-as-pope-intervenes-in-wakashio-saga\/#7af2822053a1\">wrote<\/a> Forbes contributor and BBC veteran Nishan Degnarain. \u201cHow many more signals does the IMO need to see to believe that global shipping is an industry in meltdown?\u201d he continued in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/nishandegnarain\/2020\/09\/27\/global-shipping-in-crisis-world-leaders-ignoring-the-sos\/#2d606bb0258f\">follow-up article this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><em>RELATED ARTICLE: <a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/fail-forbes-wakashio-salvage-oil\/\">IMO FAIL \u2013 Forbes Drills Deep Into The Wakashio Salvage Efforts<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unacceptable for a poor third-world government only to receive tens of millions of dollars in compensation for a clean-up that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to undertake,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com\/LL1133549\/Compensation-for-Wakashio-spill-could-be-capped-at-only-%2418m\">argued<\/a> David Osler of Lloyds List. \u201cEven if that is legally right, it is morally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe IMO has fossilized; it needs something to wake it up.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/splash247.com\/why-the-imo-should-move-its-hq-from-london-to-singapore\/\">said Andrew Craig-Bennett<\/a> in Splash24\/7 last week. \u201cA change of scenery (To Singapore) might do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Further embarrassing the subject the IMO was preparing to new cybersecurity guidelines that require shipping to beef up digital security measures by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>In a series of resolutions, the industry has nicknamed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/gcaptain.com\/tag\/imo2021\/\">IMO2021<\/a>\u201d requires that by December 31st ship owns must develop comprehensive\u00a0cyber risk management programs based around five major areas of concern: identifying risk, detecting risk, protecting assets, responding to risk and recovering from attacks.<\/p>\n<p>gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the past day and a half, visitors to the official International Maritime Organization website, www.IMO.org, have been greeted with the message \u201cThis website is under maintenance.\u201d But the maintenance is not routine, it\u2019s the result of a cyber attack\u00a0and comes at a time when the IMO is under intense scrutiny,\u00a0is working to bring attention &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[4534,832,3403],"class_list":["post-18650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-cyberattack","tag-imo","tag-implications"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/18651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}