Logistics and Freight Company Expeditors International Struggles to Recover from Cyberattack

The shipping and logistics industry took a hit once again when Seattle-based freight company Expeditors was hit by a cyberattack that crippled some of their operating systems and continues to hamper their operations around the world. 

The billion-dollar company revealed they had to shut down most of their operating systems globally after discovering the cyberattack.  The company has not revealed whether it was a ransomware attack. 

Expeditors revealed details of the worrying situation in a statement: "The situation is evolving, and we are working with global cybersecurity experts to manage the situation. While our systems are shut down, we will have limited ability to conduct operations, including but not limited to arranging for shipments of freight or managing customs and distribution activities for our customers' shipments," the company said in a statement. 

"We are conducting a thorough investigation to ensure that our systems are restored both promptly and securely, and on a parallel track, evaluating ways with our carriers and service providers to mitigate the impact of this event on our customers. Since it is extremely early in the process, we cannot provide any specific projections on when we might be operational. Still, we will provide regular updates when we are able to do so confidently. We are incurring expenses relating to the cyber-attack to investigate and remediate this matter and expect to continue to incur expenses of this nature in the future. Depending on the length of the shutdown of our operations, the impact of this cyber-attack could have a material adverse impact on our business, revenues, results of operations and reputation."

In a more recent update on their website, where up-to-date details can be found here, Expeditors said: “Our global operations teams are working diligently to deploy backup procedures and many different solutions to continue to support our customers and stakeholders. Our cybersecurity and technology teams are actively working to address the situation. Additional updates will be shared as the situation evolves.”

Expeditors, who employ thousands of people in more than 100 countries, is just the latest logistics company to be hit with a cyberattack over the last month. 

Swissport, a Swiss airport management service, reported a ransomware attack which affected its IT systems in early February. BlackCat ransomware group has since been attributed to the attack. 

There were also two cyberattacks on two German oil suppliers, which meant energy giant Shell was forced to reroute oil supplies to other depots during February. The BlackCat ransomware group was also said to be behind the incident, according to the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), affecting 233 gas stations across Germany.

Issues to IT services were also reported by multiple ports in Belgium and Netherlands following a cyberattack in early February. 

As always, the TyTek team will keep you advised and appraised of your order with us. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Source:

Expeditors website

ZD Net