SYDNEY, Nov 12 (Reuters) – The Australian government on Sunday described a cybersecurity incident that forced port operator DP World Australia to suspend operations at ports in several states from Friday as “serious and ongoing”. Stated.
DP World Australia, which controls almost half of the goods entering and leaving Australia, is investigating the potential data breach and testing its systems “essential to the resumption of normal operations and normal freight traffic”. said.
The breach has halted operations at container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle in Western Australia since Friday.
“The cyber incident at DP World is serious and ongoing,” Home Secretary Claire O’Neill said on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
A DP World spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on when normal operations would resume. The company is part of Dubai’s state-owned DP World and is one of the country’s few cargo handling industry players.
The Australian Federal Police said it was investigating the incident, but did not provide further details.
Late Saturday, National Cybersecurity Coordinator Darren Goldie, who was appointed this year in response to several large-scale data breaches, said the “interruption” was “likely to last several days and will disrupt the flow of goods into and out of the nation.” It will have an impact,” he said. Country”.
DP World says it has more than 7,000 employees and 18 ports and terminals in the Asia-Pacific region.
Reporting by Sam MacKeith in Sydney. Editing: David Gregorio, Robert Birsel, Miral Fahmy
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