Executive Summary

We assess that the maritime shipping industry will see an increase in hacking and disruption attempts posed by advanced persistent threat (APT) actors. This is evident in the increasing activity of Chinese and Indian APT threat groups. These APTs have targeted their local and international geostrategic zones of interest. 

In the last 6 months, the maritime shipping industry witnessed an increase in hacking attempts by APT groups that aimed to cause disruption. Chinese hacking groups are consistently targeting the industry through hacking attempts and the implementation of malware. They were involved in the installation of software on cranes, which are reported to be vulnerable to backdoor access attempts. Indian APT actors are also reported to be increasing their activity in India’s geostrategic areas of interest. This has included operations in areas such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 

Additionally, some states have improved their resilience to cyber threats in the maritime shipping industry by replacing vulnerable infrastructure. International organisations have also formed to combat the threat.