Nagoya port delays restart following alleged ransomware attack

The Port of Nagoya will resume operations Thursday afternoon, the Nagoya Harbor Transportation Association said, after an alleged Russian ransomware attack disrupted cargo packing procedures earlier this week.

Systems at Japan’s biggest maritime port were restored at 7:30 a.m., but operations will take longer to recover, according to the association. The facility was scheduled to resume activity earlier, but the recovery of large amounts of deleted data delayed the process.

The specific start time will be announced later, the association said.

The ransomware attack, in which hackers block access to files or systems and demand a payment in return for access, caused the container terminal at the port in Aichi Prefecture to halt operations Tuesday morning, the Nagoya Harbor Transportation Authority said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker by units sold, said the attack in Nagoya on Tuesday won’t affect the shipment of new cars yet, but imported and exported parts cannot be loaded or unloaded at the port until the problem is resolved. There wasn’t any impact on production as of Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the carmaker.

Nagoya is one of several ports globally to be recently targeted by malware. Last Christmas, hackers broke into the computer systems at Portugal’s Port of Lisbon, holding up operations for days. Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s busiest container port, also suffered a ransomware attack last year. In 2021, South Africa’s port and rail company was targeted with a strain of ransomware that cybersecurity experts have linked to groups in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Authorities in Japan say such attacks are on the rise. Last year, a cyberattack on one of Toyota’s suppliers in Aichi Prefecture forced it to halt operations at 14 factories.