Maersk's Nyetya recovery highlights impact of global cyberattacks

Dive Brief:

Shipping giant A.P. Moller Maersk has brought its major IT applications back online, working to recover from last week's worldwide Nyetya malware attack, according to a company statement. The company's online booking portal is also back online, supporting bookings and printing of transaction documentation, operating at normal traffic levels and more functionalities are expected within days.
Handling one in seven containers shipped globally, Reuters reports, Maersk's outage hampered port functionality around the world. With 1,500 applications and 49,000 end users, the Nyetya attack crippled operations, shutting down terminal operations around the globe.
As it works toward full recovery, Maersk has to contend with a backlog of bookings. Now the company is asking for continued patience from customers as it works to "keep cargo flowing" and return to a "normal state of business."

Dive Insight:

Nyetya hit companies across sectors, hindering logistics companies just as much as chocolate factories. But the disruption of the supply chain and the dismantling of normally fluid processes highlights vulnerabilities as impactful to worldwide commerce as a major IT outage is for an airline. Corporate security and IT functionality is no longer defined by how IT leaders keep systems running, but rather how quickly they can restore operations.

Cyberattacks are rendering corporate systems useless, leaving officials scrambling to restore functionality. Even with the robust disaster recovery plans in place, the most advanced organizations can still struggle. With prevention impossible, particularly because of the recent uptick in global cyberattacks — with the Nyetya attack coming just a month after WannaCry — companies have to practice and quickly execute recovery plans.

Not neglecting older operating systems — as Microsoft continues to push Windows 10 adoption, touting its security benefits — the company has also issued patches for vulnerabilities in older operating systems to help thwart nation state actors. The company can only do so much, as IT leadership has to ensure patches are implemented in a timely manner.

Cyberattacks can quickly become a PR nightmare, shining a spotlight on weak points in corporate systems. But as companies like Maersk have done, transparency can highlight how a company is recovering. It also shows the scale of the problem. Though it is easy to criticize IT shortcomings, with thousands of interconnected systems recovery can take time.