Story at a glance
- The Steamship Authority of Massachusetts services were interrupted due to a cyberattack on Wednesday.
- Ferry scheduling and ticket purchasing is expected to be delayed.
- This follows the major ransomware assault on the Colonial Oil Pipeline.
A fresh ransomware attack has taken down the online services of the Steamship Authority of Massachusetts, a ferry service that shuttles passengers between Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the outer banks of Massachusetts.
The Steamship Authority’s website is out of commission. Local outlets report that due to these interruptions, passengers booking ferry tickets are likely to see delays.
“The Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority has been the target of a ransomware attack that is affecting operations as of Wednesday morning,” the Steamship Authority said in a statement. “As a result, customers traveling with us today may experience delays.”
IT workers are investigating the attack alongside state and federal authorities to gauge the extent of the cyber attack, per the company’s Twitter account. The Steamship Authority posted screenshots of ferry schedules online and wrote that cash transactions are currently preferred.
This follows a massive ransomware assault on the Colonial Pipeline, the main oil artery that supplies about 45 percent of the East Coast’s gas station, resulting in a shortage that briefly drove prices up.
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The hacker group DarkSide took credit for the attack and was paid a ransom of $4.4 million from Colonial Pipeline executives.
Meat and food production company JBS was the next major corporation to suffer a ransomware attack, saying that it occurred on Sunday.
“The company took immediate action, suspending all affected systems, notifying authorities and activating the company’s global network of IT professionals and third-party experts to resolve the situation,” JBS said in a statement.
JBS’s backup servers weren’t affected, and the company is working with IT personnel to restore its North American and Australian systems that were affected by the attack.
Due to the attack, the company wrote that it may experience some shipping delays. It anticipates to be operating at full capacity by Wednesday.
The recent large-scale cyber attacks have prompted President Biden to issue new enhanced cybersecurity regulations to bolster online defenses and system reporting.
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