Bahrain businesses hit by global cyber attacks
BUSINESSES and organisations in Bahrain have fallen victim to the latest global cyber attack, it has emerged.
A computer virus wreaked havoc on firms around the world on Wednesday as it spread to more than 60 countries, disrupting ports from Mumbai to Los Angeles and halting work at a chocolate factory in Australia, according to reports.
In Bahrain, companies that have confirmed they had been hit included APM Terminals Bahrain, the operator of the Khalifa Bin Salman Port, and logistics firm TNT Express, although many others are also believed to have fallen victim to the ransomware worm attack.
Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry under-secretary for ports and maritime affairs Hassan Ali Al Majed said APM Terminals had been subjected to a large-scale cyber attack compromising its IT systems, including at Khalifa Bin Salman Port.
All necessary measures have been taken and a contingency plan had been activated to deal with the situation, he was quoted as saying in a statement on the BNA website.
He said the aim was to ensure the continuity of operations at the port as much as possible and not to hinder services provided to businesses and the wider community.
Accordingly, in co-ordination with Ports and Maritime Affairs, APM Terminals has set up a working team to manage operations in line with the business continuity plan that would cover all berths and ships loaded with general cargo and container vessels.
The port is operating at full capacity to unload containers and receive goods and it is hoped that more than 100 containers would be unloaded today and another 200 would be cleared and released to the market, he said.
The authority commended the efforts of the operator and all government agencies, especially Customs Affairs, for the support provided during this period. Mr Al Majed also called on all traders and affected parties to extend their co-operation for a speedy normalisation of operations.
Separately, APM Terminals told the GDN that the cyber attack had been contained and the company was working towards recovery.
“Even as the aggregate impact on the business is being assessed, we are collaborating with IT experts including national cyber crime agencies and IT industry leaders, to reinstate services safely and without further delay,” it said.
Meanwhile, in a statement posted on its website, TNT Bahrain said customers may experience delays in the transit of shipments, particularly inter-continental or non-EU European delivery, as it worked to remediate systems.
“Additionally, if customers do not have the facility for self-labelling, they may also experience delays.”
It said it was also not able to collect shipments of dangerous goods at this time.
“Like many other companies and institutions around the world, we are experiencing interference with some of our systems within the TNT network.
“We are implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible.”
Customers were advised to call 17349199 with their queries.
Cisco Systems described the ransomware worm attack that has affected multiple organisations worldwide as Nyetya, a distinct form of the Petya malware.
Ransomware, said Cisco Cyber Security Leader for Middle East and Turkey Scott Manson, is a type of malware that locks down the computer/system and takes control/encrypts data and demands a ransom.
“Our assessment points to the attack starting in the Ukraine, possibly from software update systems for a Ukrainian tax accounting package called MeDoc,” he said.
“This appears to have been confirmed by MeDoc itself.
“MeDoc is a widely used tax software used by many organisations in or doing business with Ukraine.
“There have been other reports of this attack appearing in France, Denmark, Spain, the UK, Russia and the US.
“Once the ransomware enters the system, it uses three ways to spread automatically around a network, one of which is the known Eternal Blue vulnerability, similar to how last month’s WannaCry attack unfolded.”
Dr Jassim Haji, director of information technology at Gulf Air and a renowned IT expert, told the GDN that the ransomware attack is following in the footsteps of WannaCry.
“It has given us the message that the attacks using ransomware will remain and continue to evolve. Now it is up to us, as the information security community, to take the challenge and secure our assets against these attacks.”
He said organisations need to improve on their legacy processes to ensure that they are still relevant in securing against these latest attacks.
“Email protection solutions should be fine-tuned to ensure that the malicious emails are blocked for the end-users.”
A Reuters report quotes risk-modelling firm Cyence as saying that economic losses from this week’s attack and one last month from a virus dubbed WannaCry would likely total $8 billion.
That estimate highlights the steep tolls businesses around the globe face from growth in cyber attacks that knock critical computer networks offline.
Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/222605/Bahrain-firms-hit-by-cyber-attacks
