Transnet SOC Ltd, a large South African rail, port and pipeline company, announced it was hit by a disruptive cyber attack.

South Africa’s logistics company Transnet SOC was hit last week by a disruptive cyberattack that halted its operations at all the port’s terminals. The attack took place on Thursday, 22 July.

“Port terminals are operational across the system, with the exception of container terminals as the Navis system on the trucking side has been affected,” Transnet revealed.

The vessels moving in and out of the ports were being recorded manually.

Transnet experiencing disruption on its IT network pic.twitter.com/bGwGweySL0— Transnet SOC Ltd (@follow_transnet) July 22, 2021The company immediately launched an investigation into the incident and quickly identified the source of the attack.

Update: Transnet identifies source of IT challenges; priorities time-sensitive export-bound cargo for shipping pic.twitter.com/sMx2VfdPhN— Transnet SOC Ltd (@follow_transnet) July 23, 2021In response to the attack, the company told its employees to avoid access their emails until further notice in order to prevent the threat from spreading.

“Work is underway to reduce downtime to ensure that the impacted systems are up and running again as soon as possible,” reads a statement from the company.

As a result of the attack, the Transnet SOC Ltd website went down, the damages described by the statements published by the company immediately suggested the involvement of a ransomware family, a circumstance that was confirmed by images of the crippled systems shared on social media.

BREAKING #TransnetHack I’ve been reliably informed that Transnet systems have been hacked. All employees received this communication to shutdown all laptop and desktops and not to not access their emails. #eNCA pic.twitter.com/BavupKGMoV— Sli Masikane (@Sli_Masikane) July 22, 2021Cyberattacks on ports have increased over the years, exposing critical infrastructure to serious risks.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, ransomware)

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