Port Operations Disrupted by Cyber Attack

A major cyberattack on the South African port of Cape Town disabled container operations on July 22.

In addition, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that Durban, the busiest seaport in sub-Saharan Africa, was also affected.

Cape Town Harbour Carriers Association stated that the port operating systems had been cyber-attacked, and no cargo will move until the system is restored.

On Thursday July 22, Transnet’s website displayed an error message that said it was down.

The South African transportation and distribution company Transnet stated that several of its information technology applications had been disrupted, and they were trying to establish the source of the problem.

Following days of upheaval and violence in the country, the state-owned company has now endured a second round of interruptions to its ports and national freight train line.

A government official responded to an inquiry about whether the Transnet cyber attack was related to the unrest by saying, “Currently we are treating it as an unrelated event.”

Many containers and auto parts were delayed due to the recent interruption, but commodities were in a different part of the port, so they were unaffected.

While the container ports had temporary outages, other sections of Transnet, (freight rail, pipeline, engineering, and property) reported regular activity.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, much of the copper and cobalt mined by Glencore and Barrick Gold, who operate in those two countries, is sent out of Africa through Durban.