DP World hack strands 30,000 shipping containers
Tens of thousands of shipping containers stuffed with consumer goods like electronics, clothing and food remained trapped at ports around the country on Sunday after stevedore DP World Australia was struck by a cyberattack on Friday.
The Middle Eastern-owned stevedore, which operates terminals in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and handles about 40 per cent of the goods coming in and out of Australia was forced to shut down technology systems at 10am on Friday.
DP World Australia boss Nicolaj Noes says it could be days before containers stuck at ports are collected. Oscar Colman
The shutdown prevented some 30,000 containers of goods from moving in or out of its terminals, including refrigerated containers that can hold anything from lobsters and wagyu beef to blood plasma.
While ships could still offload and pick up containers, the technology systems that allow trucks to share data with the stevedore were turned off, meaning trucks could not get into DP World’s terminals to collect or drop off containers.
Containers piled up on docks over the weekend, using up about 90 per cent of the stevedore’s storage space.
The Danish boss of DP World’s Oceania business, Nicolaj Noes – who has only been running the stevedore for three months after a long career with Danish shipping firm Maersk and its subsidiary Svitzer – told The Australian Financial Review it was difficult to put a financial value on the 30,000 containers.
“You can have a container of blood plasma that’s worth a million dollars, and then you’re going to have some used clothing for export worth $800,” Mr Noes said.
Containers were piling up at DP World’s terminal in Sydney’s Port Botany on Sunday because trucks could not get into the terminal to collect
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