Swire Pacific Offshore

Swire Pacific Offshore is a Singaporean marine service provider that manages a fleet of more than 50 offshore auxiliary vessels by November 2021.

History

2021: Data theft as a result of cyber attacks

On November 26, 2021, the shipping company Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) announced a data leak after it was the victim of a cyber attack. Both commercial information and personal data of employees were stolen.

SPO, headquartered in Singapore, said in a press release that it suffered from "unauthorized access to its IT systems."

One of the world's largest shipping companies, Swire Pacific Offshore, was attacked by a ransomware virus

According to the press release:

Unauthorized access has resulted in the loss of some confidential business information and in the loss of some personal data.

Although the company did not provide any details about the cyber attack, it is known that the incident was reported to the relevant authorities, allegedly to the Personal Data Protection Committee of Singapore (PDPC).

The SPO also said it has taken measures to "strengthen" existing security protocols and mitigate further attacks and added that employees of the company take seriously any cyber attack or illegal access to data, as well as any illegal actions that could jeopardize data privacy, and they will not be threatened with such actions. It also reported that none of its global processes had been affected.

In conclusion, the company said the following:

SPO also works closely with cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident and determine what further action may be required, and will take all necessary steps to protect its customers and employees now and in the future.

The hacker group Clop claimed responsibility for the attack and published screenshots of the data.

Screenshots show that the ransomware gang stole passports, salary information, identification numbers, bank account details, email addresses and internal correspondence messages.

The number of persons at risk can reach 2.5 thousand people, which corresponds to the company's marine and coastal personnel in 18 countries. More accurate figures are not published.

SPO will contact all potentially affected individuals to inform them of the incident.^[1]

Notes