Supply Chains Face Increased Attacks
Report says shipping hubs, gateways at greater risk for cyber hacker, pirate, terrorist attacks
Global supply chains face increased cyber, hacker, pirate and terrorist attacks over the next 20 years with key shipping hubs and transport gateways most at risk, a report today said.
There is a 56 percent probability of attacks on transport chains according to 80 executives surveyed by PwC, a consultancy.
The executives, from 25 countries, said they are even more concerned with hacker attacks affecting their supply chains than they are with actual physical attacks.
“Logistics, as driver of globalization, will become the focus of [cyber attacks] in the years to come,” according to the report “Transportation & Logistics 2030 – Securing the supply chain.”
”A hacker could infiltrate the flight control system, for example, and randomly let airplanes fall from the sky. Or re-set the tracks in rail traffic and let trains crash.”
The supply chain has become much more complex and more accident-sensitive in recent years, said Klaus-Dieter Ruske, partner and Global Transportation and Logistics leader at PwC.
“Today 90 percent of the worldwide trading volume is concentrating on about 39 gateway regions.”
“If only a single one of these hubs fails, the economic consequences could be enormous after just a short period of time, and affect most economies around the globe,” Ruske said.
The world’s largest gateway is the Hong Kong-Shenzhen region, which handles 14.8 percent of the world’s ocean container and air cargo traffic.
Highly frequented shipping “chokepoints” with only one narrow transport link such as the Strait of Hormuz, and the Suez and Panama canals are potential targets too, according to Ruske.
Egypt already loses more than $640 million a year because shipping companies avoid the piracy-threatened Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.
Transport and logistics companies’ expenditure on security will rise in response to the heightened threat of attacks. “Capital investment on security, also on security of IT systems, will be one of the most important cost drivers of the logistics industry.”
Regards,
Leslie G. Brand III | Chief Executive Officer| |
Phone: 616.554.8900 Ext: 106 | Cell: 616.836.7074 | Toll Free: 877.554.8900 | scsolutionsinc.com |Skype:lgbrand |