Australian ports back online after cyber attack

Operations at the ports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle were disrupted all weekend, leaving cargo and containers stranded, after the company disconnected its internet to prevent ‘any ongoing unauthorised access’.

Service has now been resumed at 9am local time on Monday after successful tests of key systems overnight.

“We expect approximately 5,000 containers will move out of the four Australian terminals today,” said DP World Australia.

Director of the Freight and Trade Alliance, Paul Zalai, has confirmed that limited operations are up and running but said that Sydney and Melbourne were only accepting imports.

“We have heard from one of our members, who say DP World told them it’ll be another two weeks before accepting export cargo at [Sydney’s] Port Botany,” he said

“That’s going to have devastating effects for our operators,” he said, adding that one regional exporter had 300 containers stuck at one port.

It is not anticipated that the attack will significantly affect transportation of goods for Christmas shopping.

“More and more is becoming apparent by the hour,” said Zalai. “The overall position is looking a lot better than it did over the weekend, as operations are now up and running.”