Australia: Ports blocked for days after cyber attack, tens of thousands of containers jammed

Enlarge image

Days of standstill: Load cranes in Sydney Harbour

Photo: DAVID GRAY / AFP

Three days after the start of a cyberattack, several major ports in Australia are gradually resuming operations. The container terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle are back in operation, port operator DP World said on Monday.

The company expects to handle 5000 containers at the four ports during the day. According to industry experts, this is almost the usual daily volume. According to Home Secretary Clare O'Neil, DP World handles "nearly 40 percent of the goods that arrive or leave our country."

Unloading yes, onward transport no

Following a cyber attack, the port operator had disconnected the computer systems of its branches in Australian ports from the internet on Friday. The reason given was that the measure was intended to prevent "any further unauthorized access" to the systems. As a result, operations at the transshipment terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle had to be restricted. In this way, ships could be unloaded. Their cargo, however, could no longer be transported.

However, the measures that have now been taken to protect the networks could cause disruptions for several more days, according to the DP World statement. According to the financial news agency Bloomberg, around 30,000 containers are waiting to be cleared at the ports.

Problems will "continue for some time"

According to cybersecurity experts, inadequate security measures and an accumulation of sensitive customer data have made Australia a lucrative target for hackers. After a series of spectacular cyberattacks that affected the personal data of millions of people, the government had created the post of National Cybersecurity Coordinator.

Darren Goldie, who has held the post since July, praised DP World on X (formerly Twitter) for its "collegial and timely" cooperation on the current incident.

Last year, 76,000 crime cases were reported to the Australian Cybersecurity Centre. The number of unreported cases, however, is likely to be significantly higher, experts say. Minister O'Neil, who is in charge of cybersecurity, immediately used the incident at DP World to lash out at the previous government. "It's hard work to clean up the mess of the previous government, but we're making important reforms to make Australia a world leader in internet security," she wrote on X.

mak/AFP