Port of LA Fended Off 120 Million Cyberattacks in August

The Port of Los Angeles reportedly blocked more than 120 million cyberattacks during August.

That’s according to a report Thursday (Sept. 17) by Bloomberg News, which notes that these attacks on America’s busiest container hub for global trade represent an ongoing operational threat amid shifting tariff policies.

Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director, told the news outlet his cybersecurity team — working with private sector companies — had identified intrusion, network exploitation, credential harvesting and malware attacks.

The report added that Seroka’s comments came after officials announced that U.S. government agencies were monitoring cyber threats against nearly 20 ships around the world. Attacks in the maritime space have ramped up in recent years as vessels rely more and more on digital systems for operations like navigation and communications, Bloomberg said.

“All they have to do is to get it right one time,” Seroka said. “This is front of mind every day.”

The report said shifts in trade flows and policies are also affecting business at the port. For example, Vietnam’s business has quadrupled in the last decade, while China’s share has declined by 20% in the same space of time.

The period between July and August was the port’s busiest three-month stretch ever recorded, and Seroka said he envisioned an additional 5% to 10% increase to volumes as restrictions in the Panama Canal are rerouting goods toward Los Angeles.

PYMNTS wrote about the rise of cybercrime in the freight economy in November, noting that as trucks and trailers get smarter, so do the criminals targeting them.

“Not through binoculars or back-alley deals, but through supply chain dashboards, network vulnerabilities, and remote access tools,” that report said. “And the criminals aren’t just after sensitive documents or data. They’re hijacking actual freight.”

This represents a 21st century update to the age-old threat of cargo theft, the report added, citing National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) estimates that criminals are making off with $35 billion in cargo theft losses per year in the U.S. alone.

These aren’t small “grease-under-the-fingernails heists,” PYMNTS argued, but in many cases are highly orchestrated operations, timed to coincide with high-volume periods like holiday weekends and fourth-quarter surges when consumer products are most in transit.

“Yet what’s changing is the battleground,” the report said. “Instead of slipping into truck yards late at night, the attackers slip into the digital workflows that govern the supply chain.”