A French certification and ship inspection firm, Bureau Veritas, has recently been hit by a cyberattack on their systems that temporarily disrupted their operations and slowed down their client services. The ship inspection firm said from a statement that they immediately triggered their cybersecurity protocols upon learning about the incident.
To prevent the cyberattack from furthering the damages caused, the ship inspection firm had to take their servers and data offline to fix the problem and protect the clients and the company. Investigations and corrective measures are ongoing as their servers went offline.
Because of the current global supply chain disruption attacks and heightened remote access use, the ship inspection firm has seen a decline with its global clients. Moreover, Bureau Veritas has also found their company as one of the potential targets for cyberattacks, therefore enforcing the implementation of enhanced cybersecurity by partnering with leading third-party IT experts to ensure their operations’ continuity.
The ship inspection firm immediately reported the cyberattack incident to the appropriate authorities.
During the service interruption, Bureau Veritas apologized to the affected clients and advised them to use email and landline phones to reach out and communicate about business in the meantime. Appropriate authorities have also helped them mitigate the situation.
An independent cybersecurity company, Secura, was acquired by Bureau Veritas last January to attain a new cybersecurity foundation strategy. Testing, certification, and ship inspection firms such as Bureau Veritas have emerged to be a market interest after the spike in cyber threats posed dangers to many industries.
Threat actors are seen to be targeting the maritime sector over the past three years with about a 900% rate increase, as estimated and reported by security experts from a study.
After being targeted by cyberattacks last year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) recently announced appointing a special advisor to its secretary-general to concentrate on maritime security. Furthermore, the IMO said that cyberattacks had become one of their greatest concerns, alongside other traditional safety issues the maritime sector faces, such as piracy, armed robbery on ships, fugitives, and smuggling.
