Cyber Threats In Supply Chain And Logistics

The Does LogisticsMatter? The podcast is all about trends and innovations in supply chain and logistics. This episode features Frank Breedijk, Chief Information Security Officer at Schuberg Philis.

The Threat is Real, The Cost is High

An increasing number of companies are hacked. Their data is stolen and sold, or their systems are hacked and infected with ransomware. Getting data stolen can seriously hurt your business. Your trustworthiness is at stake, but it can go as far as sensitive information ending up with your competitors. An infection with ransomware is even worse. A successful ransomware attack can take down all your systems. Most companies will grind to an absolute halt as a result.

Digitisation is a great thing. It dramatically increases efficiency. The increasing number of systems and sensors, and developments like IoT and AI, are improving this more and more every day. At the same time, this increase in systems and sensors also increases the chances of a hack.

Several supply chain and logistics companies like Hellman Logistics, CH Robinson, and Maersk have been hacked in the past years. And these are the big companies we know about because it was all over the news. Many more have been impacted that didn’t make the news.

The number of attacks keeps going up. Some numbers:

The prevalence and scope of ransomware exploded in 2021, as two-thirds of mid-sized organizations worldwide were targets and average ransom payouts saw a five-fold increase, according to the State of Ransomware 2022 report from Sophos released Wednesday.

Ransomware hit 66% of mid-sized organizations last year, up from 37% in 2020. Average ransom payments reached $812,000 during 2021, compared with $170,000 the prior year.

Ransomware attacks, payouts soared worldwide in 2021: report

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its annual report compiled from 847,376 complaints it received in 2021. It said businesses lost in excess of $6.9bn from the attacks.

Cybercriminals made $7bn in pure profit in 2021, says FBI

If it were measured as a country, then cybercrime — which is predicted to inflict damages totaling $6 trillion USD globally in 2021 — would be the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China.

Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow by 15 percent per year over the next five years, reaching $10.5 trillion USD annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion USD in 2015.

Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025

What Supply Chain and Logistics Companies Can Do

In this episode, Frank talks about how hackers hack into corporate systems and installations, and we discuss several examples of actual cybersecurity attacks in the supply chain and logistics industry. We discuss the dangers, what companies can do to prevent being hacked, and what you need to do when you get hacked.

Please enjoy my conversation with Frank Breedijk, by clicking one of the buttons below or looking up the Does Logistics Matter? Podcast on your favourite podcast platform. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes.