Escalating geopolitical instability in the South China Seas and The Red Sea are being seen as the root cause behind a rapid rise in cyber-attacks on commercial shipping, as well as a sharp increase in cyber-assisted piracy. “The risk has escalated significantly in the past year due to heightened geopolitical tensions and increased cyber capabilities of threat actors…The average cost per data breach now exceeds $545,000 for a shipping organization,” says Freight Right Global Logistics CEO Robert Khachatryan. According to C. Todd Doss, Senior Managing Director at Guidepost Solutions: “Over the past year, these risks have escalated notably. Reports indicate that cyber-attacks on maritime infrastructure and vessels increased by over 20% in 2023 compared to the previous year .”
Mandiant revealed that Chinese-linked state-backed hackers rely on operational relay box (ORBs) network proxy meshes to avoid detection for cyber espionage campaigns. For example, Mandiant pointed out that these advanced persistent threat actors (APTs) used ORBs for the 'SPACEHOP' critical vulnerability campaign earlier this year.
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