That WWII thing was pretty rough on shipping all right.*
From PYMNTS.com, July 28:
The shipping sector is reportedly facing a spike in cyberattacks tied to state-sponsored hackers.
The industry saw at least 64 cyber incidents last year, the Financial Times reported Saturday (July 27), citing research by the Netherlands’ NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. That study found that there were three such incidents in 2013 and zero in 2003.
More than 80% of the incidents logged since 2001 that involved a known attacker originated in Russia, China, North Korea or Iran, the study showed.
“The international rules-based order … the great system [that benefited shipping] since the second world war is under threat like never before,” Guy Platten, secretary-general at the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents shipowners controlling about 80% of the world’s commercial fleets, told the FT.
The report also noted that shipping experts are warning that the industry — which has since its infancy dealt with the physical threat of pirates — is not prepared for the online variety.
“IT spend in the maritime sector is pretty low,” said Stephen McCombie, a maritime IT security professor at NHL Stenden.
Shipowners, McCombie added, “are looking for people with maritime knowledge and cybersecurity knowledge,” though that is not a large group....
The outro from a 2017 mention of the earlier phase of the war on merchant shipping:
Shipping: A Warning To Freight Forwarders, The Good Times Are OverI, without thinking, initially headlined this post "...The Happy Time Is Over".
Then did a "Wait, what?" and quickly changed it.*
*It's a WWII ref:During this second happy time the Germans were sinking dozens of ships per month, peaking in May and June of '42 with 126 ships sunk in May and 135 sunk in June..
From June until October 1940, over 270 Allied ships were sunk: this period was referred to by U-boat crews as "Die Glückliche Zeit", the Happy Time.Followed by:
Second Happy Time
The Second Happy Time was the informal name for a phase in the Second Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping along the east coast of North America. The first "Happy time" had been in 1940/41.
It lasted from January 1942 to about August of that year. German submariners named it the happy time or the golden time as defence measures were weak and disorganised,[1] and the U-boats were able to inflict massive damage with little risk. During the second happy time, Axis submarines sank 609 ships totaling 3.1 million tons for the loss of only 22 U-boats. This was roughly one quarter of all shipping sunk by U-boats during the entire Second World War, and constituted by far the most serious defeat ever suffered by the US Navy.
It is rather astounding to consider what the German Navy was doing. Here's May.
Seven ships sunk on the 3rd and again on the 6th. Ten ships sunk on the 12th. Nine ships sunk on the 13th. and on and on.
