Carnival

Performance indicators

2022: Loss - $6 billion

At the end of fiscal 2022, Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, received a net loss of $6.09 billion. For comparison: losses for the previous fiscal year were approximately one and a half times more - $9.5 billion. Such figures are given in the work report published on February 28, 2023.

Carnival's revenue in 2022 reached $12.17 billion. For comparison: in 2021, this figure was $1.91 billion. Thus, the company is restoring operations after the tourism crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Passenger ticket sales on an annualized basis increased sevenfold, amounting to $7.02 billion against $1 billion in 2021.

Carnival returns 90 airliners to service

The report states that Carnival has returned 90 airliners to service. More than 100,000 team members began work on the ships. Nevertheless, the occupancy rate of cruise ships by the end of 2022 remained 19% lower compared to 2019 - before the introduction of strict restrictions due to the spread of coronavirus infection SARS-CoV-2.

Carnival emphasizes that several factors have a negative impact on the business. This is an uneven recovery in the tourism industry due to the consequences of COVID-19, as well as the current geopolitical situation, which has hit European countries especially hard. Therefore, the operator is forced to take measures to optimize activities. They include adjusting routes taking into account economic uncertainties, reducing the total cost of recreation for customers, etc.

We believe that these solutions allowed us to attract more guests and made sea cruises even more valuable compared to land alternatives. In addition, based on the changing nature of COVID-19 and our ongoing cooperation with local and national health authorities, we have relaxed safety protocols, Carnival said in a statement.[1]

History

2020: Ransomware Virus Attack, Client Data Theft

In mid-August 2020, the world's largest cruise operator Carnival fell victim to a ransomware virus, as a result of which customer data fell into the hands of hackers. The cyber attack took place on August 15 and was discovered by the company on the same day. Unknown hackers encrypted some of the systems and downloaded data files of the same brand.

Carnival did not say which brand was affected. The company operates brands such as Carnival Cruise Line, Costa, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Holland American Line, AIDA, Cunard and Seabourn. The stolen data included personal details of guests and employees, which could lead to potential lawsuits by guests, employees, shareholders or regulators.

World's largest cruise operator attacked by ransomware virus

Carnival also noted that it has launched an independent investigation, informed law enforcement agencies and involved lawyers and other specialists who respond to such incidents.

While the investigation of the incident continues, the company has taken a number of measures to contain and correct the situation in order to strengthen the security of its information technology systems, - said a representative of Carnival.

It is not surprising that thanks to the success of previous ransomware attacks, the number of attacks continues to grow, "said Pravin Madhani, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of K2 Cyber ​ ​ Security. - Although many cyber attacks are based on phishing campaigns, this is not the only means of hackers. You can deploy ransomware thanks to software vulnerabilities and individual devices.

Cybersecurity firm Bad Packets believes that this is what hackers took advantage of during the attack on the cruise operator, because Carnival uses vulnerable Citrix ADC (Netscaler) border gateway devices and Palo Alto Networks firewalls that could open the attacker access to the corporate network.^[2]

Notes