On Tuesday, the popular transportation and logistic company Maersk reported that they would loose millions dollars due to the NotPetya ransomware attack.
The Q2 earnings report of Maersk shows that the firm was expecting losses between $200 million and $300 million caused by “significant business interruption”. The interruption was due to the halt of some critical systems of Maersk which were infected with the NotPetya ransomware.
“As soon as A.P. Moller – Maersk became aware that systems had been affected, action to respond was initiated including closing down infected networks. The malware was contained to only impact the container related businesses of A.P. Moller” the report states. “A.P. Moller – Maersk also remained in full control of all vessels throughout the situation, and all employees were safe.”
According to the company, its Maersk Line APM Terminals and Damco systems were completely shut down in response to the ransomware attack as a precaution measure.
“These system shutdowns resulted in significant business interruption during the shutdown period, with limited financial impact in Q2, while the impact in Q3 is larger, due to temporary lost revenue in July (see guidance for 2017),” the report continues.
The NotPetya ransomware affected hundreds of companies causing them serious million of dollars damages.
This month, the US pharmaceutical company Merck also reported that the huge NotPetya attack has disrupted its worldwide operations.
Among the other big companies affected by the NotPetya cyber attack were the Russian oil giant Rosneftthe, the Ukraine’s central bank, the law firm DLA Piper, and the advertising group WPP.
Last month, the world’s largest consumer goods companies Mondelez and Reckitt Benckiser have also suffered serious problems due to the NotPetya attack and reported the impact on their revenues.
According to the Mondelez International company’s estimation, the NotPetya attack would cut three percentage points from their second-quarter sales growth due to the shipping disruptions and the invoices caused by the attack.
At the same time, the Reckitt Benckiser company revealed that they expected their sales would be hit by an estimated £110m in Q2 this year. The firm also added that their overall profit is still expected to exceed 2016 margins despite the NotPetya attack interaction.
“This cyber-attack was a previously unseen type of malware, and updates and patches applied to both the Windows systems and antivirus were not an effective protection in this case,” the company said.
“In response to this new type of malware, A.P. Moller – Maersk has put in place different and further protective measures and is continuing to review its systems to defend against attacks.”
