Ransomware Disrupts Container Logistics at Nagoya Port

Jiji Press

9:16 JST, July 6, 2023

Nagoya, July 5 (Jiji Press)—The container terminal system at the Port of Nagoya in the central Japan prefecture of Aichi has been infected with ransomware, disrupting work to move containers in and out of the port, the Nagoya Harbor Transportation Association said Wednesday.

An official of the association saw an English-language letter demanding money to restore the system being printed from a printer on Tuesday morning, while the system glitch occurred around 6:30 a.m. that day, according to informed sources.

The letter claimed to be from a Russia-based hacker group called LockBit, the sources said.

The Aichi prefectural police department believes that the case may have been a cyberattack.

The association aims to resume work to move containers in and out of the port on Thursday.

The Nagoya port, which handles automobiles and other goods, is one of Japan’s largest trade hubs, with leading automaker Toyota Motor Corp. headquartered in the nearby city of Toyota.

A spokesperson for Toyota said that the company is closely monitoring the situation while the port system glitch has not affected shipments of finished vehicles or production.

Last September, the port association’s website was hit by a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack in which a massive amount of data was sent to cause disruption, and a Russian hacker group called Killnet issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack.