On Sep. 28, carrier CMA CGM became the victim of a ransomware cyberattack, and it took a while for the company to resume services on its website. As the carrier’s peripheral servers were affected, the company decided to disconnect the service applications in an attempt to limit the scope of the attack. This created a large-scale disruption for customers. Even now, the long-term impact this will have on the carrier’s relationship with customers is yet to be known.
Cybersecurity on the rise
The frequency of cyberattacks in the logistics and transportation industry is increasing. Well-known victims of cyberattacks include Maersk, Deutsche Bahn, and FedEx—and these are just the tip of the iceberg. IT professionals in logistics and transportation companies can no longer neglect these attacks and their ramifications; thus, every company should be looking into technologies that can help protect them.
Outdated systems might be easy targets for cybercriminals. In other words, they have a higher chance of experiencing a data breach, as exemplified by the recent CMA CGM incident. Typically, when a company’s devices are attacked, a tiny application will quietly encrypt everything it can access. The result is that the company is blocked from the encrypted data unless a ransom is paid (usually in Bitcoin). According to Verizon’s 2020 Data Breach Investigations Report, almost 50% of breaches are perpetrated through ransomware and phishing. These malware attacks are usually done by planting malicious applications in phishing emails with infected web links or attachments.
There’s something you can do to prevent this
Paying the ransom doesn’t solve the problem and there isn’t any single software that can protect you from every attack. And, the criminal software engineers are constantly coming up with new ransomware by taking advantage of various system vulnerabilities.
However, there are still many things companies can do to protect themselves against this kind of attack.
- Instead of building a wall of defense that is still vulnerable to cyberattacks, companies should regularly back up data. This way, you can immediately reset your devices and restore the data afterward without compromising the integrity of your data.
- Employees must always be vigilant when receiving suspicious emails. Be sure they are trained that, when they receive an email from an unknown sender, check the email address and don’t click on any links in that email.
The cybersecurity requirements for a logistics system
Some assert that cloud-based systems are much safer than systems with on-premises physical servers. But, cloud isn’t what makes the system safe. The security infrastructure established by the cloud service provider is what enables a cloud-based system to protect the data from cyberattacks. You don’t need to hire a cybersecurity expert. The development team in GoFreight has built up a strong security infrastructure to protect our clients’ data from ransomware.
The isolated virtual machine on the cloud
In a cloud infrastructure, every client has an independent virtual machine for their system. This means that each system has its own allocated resources, separate from each other. If a system’s data integrity is compromised by ransomware, the others will not be infected.
Separate the application and the database
To better protect our clients’ data, we separate the application from the database. Users can only access their database through the application and no other external access to the database is possible. The advantage of this structure is that when the application is infected, the database can remain intact. We simply have to eliminate the infected application, regenerate a new one, and re-establish the connection between the application and the database.
The extra layer of protection of your valuable data
You can never be too careful when it comes to data security. To add another layer of protection, we back up three copies of your data stored in two different media, and keep one copy offsite. Rest assured that all your important business data is safe with us.
Not sure if you have a secured freight management system? Contact GoFreight and let us help you.
