DP World says hackers stole Australian ports employee data

(Reuters) — DP World Australia, one of the country’s largest ports operator, said Tuesday that hackers had accessed files containing personal details of employees after a cyber incident early this month forced it to suspend operations for three days.

The breach, spotted Nov. 10, crippled operations at the company, which manages about 40% of the goods that flow in and out of Australia, affecting its container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Western Australia’s Fremantle.

“While the investigation has shown that customer data was not affected, some of the impacted data includes the personal information of current and previous employees,” the company, part of Dubai’s state-owned DP World, said in a statement.

State-sponsored cyber groups and hackers have stepped up their assault on Australia’s critical infrastructure, businesses and homes, a government report released recently showed.

DP World did not provide any details about the perpetrators but said its investigation confirmed the incident was confined to its Australian operations.

No ransomware was found deployed within the DP World Australia network, the company said.

After spotting the breach, DP World, one of a handful of stevedore industry players in Australia, disconnected from the internet, significantly impacting freight movements.

The company said it had cleared the backlog of more than 30,000 containers by Nov. 20.