Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said it experienced a network outage and cannot rule out the possibility of a cyber attack, the company said Friday.
The outage began in one of MSC’s data centers in Geneva, Switzerland and the company shut down its servers in response.
“In light of the network outage incurred on one of the data centers in Geneva, we decided to close down the servers in our Headquarters as a first safety measure – since security is our top priority.
“At this point in time we cannot rule out entirely the possibility of a malware, but we can confirm that our agencies worldwide network is working. And that our local agents support customers for all services as usual.
“We’re working towards full recovery in the shortest time possible,” MSC said on Twitter.
An earlier post said MSC’s services and operations were working as usual.
At time of publishing, MSC’s global website and its myMSC.com, its customer portal and booking platform, were inaccessible.
Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company is the second largest container shipping line, controlling 571 ships representing 16% share of the world’s TEU capacity. It also participates in the 2M Alliance with Maersk, the world’s leading container line.
The outage can’t help but recall the 2017 NotPetya malware attack that crippled Maersk’s global networks and disrupted its container shipping operations for weeks, costing Maersk some $300 million.
The outage also comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is already straining global supply chains.
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