Could MOL-Chartered Mauritius Oil Spill Ship Wakashio Have Been Hacked?

Could MOL-Chartered Mauritius Oil Spill Ship Wakashio Have Been Hacked?

Ship's cyber security vulnerabilities, revealed by Cyber Security specialists, Pen Test Partners



Pen Test Partners

Cyber-attacks against global shipping have spiked 400% since Covid-19 lockdowns. And this was before the two high profile hacking victims in the last month alone – the world's fourth largest shipping company, French giant CMA-CGM, and the UN's own global shipping regulator, the IMO.

Now questions are being asked whether Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL)-chartered Wakashio, could have been a dry run for cyber hackers this summer that led to its grounding and subsequent oil spill in Mauritius.

It turns out that one of the ship's system that investigators have already revealed an anomaly with, the ship's navigation system (called ECDIS, or Electronic Chart Display and Information System), had already been