In April 2020, the Geneva-based **Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)**, one of the world’s largest shipping firms, fell victim to a **targeted malware attack** exploiting an engineered vulnerability. The assault was localized to a limited number of physical systems at MSC’s Geneva headquarters but triggered a **data center outage**, crippling critical operations. The company’s **digital booking tool and official website were knocked offline**, leaving customers unable to access essential services for approximately **five days**.The disruption severely impacted MSC’s ability to process shipments, manage bookings, and maintain customer communications, leading to **operational paralysis** and potential financial losses from delayed transactions. While the attack did not explicitly mention data theft or ransomware demands, the **prolonged outage of core systems**—including customer-facing platforms—highlighted the vulnerability of global logistics infrastructure to cyber threats. The incident also underscored a broader trend of **escalating cyberattacks on shipping giants**, raising concerns about supply chain resilience in the face of digital sabotage.
Source: https://splash247.com/anglo-eastern-suffers-ransomware-attack/
TPRM report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/msc-mediterranean-shipping-co--s-a-
"id": "msc327092125",
"linkid": "msc-mediterranean-shipping-co--s-a-",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "4/2020",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization’s existence"{'affected_entities': [{'industry': 'Shipping/Logistics',
'location': 'Geneva, Switzerland',
'name': 'Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)',
'type': 'Corporation'}],
'attack_vector': 'Engineered targeted vulnerability',
'date_detected': '2020-04',
'description': 'In April 2020, The Geneva (Switzerland) based Mediterranean '
'Shipping Company (MSC) experienced a malware attack on their '
'servers. The malware-based attack was confined to a limited '
'number of physical computer systems in the headquarters in '
'Geneva only. The malware attack was based on an engineered '
'targeted vulnerability. The attack caused a data centre '
'outage, resulting in the company’s digital booking tool and '
'website being offline for about five days, denying customers '
'access to these systems.',
'impact': {'downtime': '5 days',
'operational_impact': 'Denial of access to digital booking tool '
'and website for customers',
'systems_affected': ['Digital booking tool',
'Company website',
'Data centre']},
'title': 'Malware Attack on Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)',
'type': 'Malware Attack'}