Los Angeles is home to the nation's busiest port, moving $276 billion worth of goods last year. It's a big target for hackers as shippers increasingly rely on automated systems.
Every month there's about 40 million attempted cyber security breaches, port officials said. That includes everything from spam to malware fishing to more serious incidents that could halt shipments for much of the West Coast.
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Back in 2017, a ransomware attack on Danish shipping giant <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-maersk-cyberattack-20170817-story.html" target="_blank">A.P. Moller-Maersk</a>, which has the region's largest terminal at the port, cost the company an estimated $300 million and slowed vessel movements on terminals for about two days in Los Angeles. </p><p>
It's those kinds of incidents that officials are trying to stop before they happen.
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Six years ago the port created a cybersecurity center — the nation's first — and on Monday announced it entered into a three-year, $6.8 million agreement with IBM to install, operate and maintain what it's calling a "Port Cyber Resilience Center" to identify malicious cyber attacks that can interrupt the flow of cargo.
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The initiative has become especially pressing as the port pushes toward digitizing information about cargo movements and terminals automate their operations, bringing in waterfront robots to stack shipments.
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"Automation and digital transformation is what's driving a lot of this," said Kevin Albano, a partner at IBM Security X-Force, the cybersecurity services arm.
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Cybersecurity attacks on the maritime industry are up about 400% since the pandemic began, according to a report from Alianz.
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Most of the attacks come through email, Albano said.
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"It's pretty tough to defend against. Actors are getting better at knowing their targets" he said, adding that phishing emails can look like they really come from someone within the organization. "There's a lot of information out there about individuals from previous breaches."
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About a third of ransomware engagements that IBM Security X-Force has responded to in 2020 came from Asia and North America.
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The center was created to function as an alert system to link the port — which leases its land to international shipping companies — to the dozens of companies that rely on it. Those include shipping operators and logistics businesses that ferry truckloads of goods to major retailers from Amazon to Target to Home Depot.
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Albano said information about security and intelligence will be shared on a closed network that includes 20 port partners and will eventually extend to about 100 in the coming years.
</p><p>The Maersk attack, called NotPetya, was eventually traced to a compromised tax-accounting software widely used in Ukraine. NotPetya exploited a vulnerability in unpatched Microsoft Windows operating systems. The damaging attack struck thousands of companies around the world including U.S. pharmaceutical-maker Merck.</p><p>A former White House security official <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/notpetya-cyberattack-ukraine-russia-code-crashed-the-world/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told Wired</a> in 2018 the attack cost a total of more than $10 billion and pinned the blame on Russia.</p>
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The White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy and other federal agencies today met with Amazon, Microsoft and other tech industry leaders to kick off a campaign aimed at getting the best information about coronavirus out to researchers and the general public.
<p>Tech titans were urged to leverage artificial intelligence and other tools to help researchers glean scientific insights from a soon-to-be-unveiled database of full-text research literature relating to COVID-19. "Cutting-edge technology companies and major online platforms will play a critical role in this all-hands-on-deck effort," White House chief technology officer Michael Kratsios said in a statement.</p><p><span></span>White House officials also urged the tech industry representatives, who attended in person or via teleconference, to coordinate efforts to root out misinformation about coronavirus. State Department officials <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/05/state-department-face-fresh-questions-senate-about-coronavirus-misinformation-online/" target="_blank">have reportedly blamed social media accounts linked to Russia</a> for spreading conspiracy theories.</p><p><span></span>According to the White House, the meeting included representatives from Amazon and Microsoft as well as Apple, Cisco, the Consumer Technology Industry Council, Facebook, Google, IBM, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Software and Information Industry Association, TechNet and Twitter — plus officials from an array of federal agencies.</p><p><em><a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/white-house-seeks-aid-tech-titans-combat-coronavirus-misinformation/" target="_blank">This story originally appeared in GeekWire</a>. Love space and science? <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/space-newsletter/" target="_blank">Sign up for GeekWire's Space & Science email newslette</a>r.</em></p>
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