The container pile-up worsening, says JNPT chairman.

The Union government on Wednesday confirmed that one of the terminals at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) near Mumbai has been impacted by the latest malware attack.

“The situation is being closely monitored and further steps to deal with the traffic situation will be initiated based on an assessment during the course of the next few days,” an official statement said, adding that Dr. Gulshan Rai, Cyber Security Chief at the Prime Minister's Office, would go to the JNPT to further deal with the situation.

Operations at the JNPT’s terminal operated by AP Moller-Maersk in Mumbai have been disrupted. “It has been informed by the private Terminal Operator that this disruption is a consequence of a worldwide disruption being faced by them because of a cyber attack,” the statement said.

It is anticipated that there could be bunching of in-bound and out-bound container cargo and the Ministry of Shipping and the JNPT were taking steps to ensure minimum disturbance to trade, transporters and more importantly local citizens.

The official statement said that since the congestion could create difficulties in traffic management, the JNPT had opened up its parking lots for cargo destined to this private terminal.

The JNPT is also working with local authority CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra) to identify more parking areas and traffic control teams are being deployed to address potential road congestion.

Maritime conglomerate Maersk group confirmed that its operations were hit by the cyber attack. “We can confirm that on Tuesday, June 27, AP Moller-Maersk was hit as part of a cyber attack named Petya, affecting multiple sites and select business units,” Maersk said in a tweet.

It said, “We are responding to the situation to contain and limit the impact and uphold operations.”

The group is “assessing and managing” the situation to minimise the impact on its customers and partners.

Also read: Companies hit by global ransomware attack on June 27.

Foreign media reports from the Netherlands capital The Hague quoting the pubcaster RTV Rijnmond said a new ransomware virus called Petya has hit 17 APM terminals, including two in Rotterdam and 15 in other parts of the world.

APM Terminals is a subsidiary of shipping giant Maersk, which has confirmed that it is suffering from a cyber attack.

“We can confirm that Maersk’s IT systems are down across multiple geographies and business units due to a cyber attack. We continue to assess the situation. The safety of our employees, our operation and our customers businesses is our top priority. We will update when we have more information,” the spokesperson said in a written statement issued globally,'' it said.

The current attacks come weeks after the Wannacry ransomware attack, which affected systems of many companies.

Firms that were hit on Wednesday include Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft, global advertising giant WPP Group and multiple institutions in Ukraine, including its central bank and an international airport.

An AFP report quoting the Ukrainian central bank said a cyber attack hit several lenders in the ex-Soviet republic, hindering operations and leading the regulator to warn other financial institutions to tighten security measures.

The Moscow-based cyber security firm Group IB traced the origins of the malware and the hackers to a code developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) that was leaked and then used in the Wannacry ransomware attack that caused global disruption last month, according to the report.

The global wire quoted a Ukrainian media company, which was hit, as saying its computers were blocked and it had received a demand for USD 300 worth of the Bitcoin crypto-currency to restore access to its files.

(With inputs from PTI)