Last Updated on 22/02/2022 by Nidhi Khandelwal
Expeditors International, a Seattle-based logistics and freight forwarding company, was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend, forcing the company to shut down most of its operations around the world.
Expeditors has 350 offices and over 18,000 workers worldwide, providing crucial logistical solutions for its customers. Its annual total sales is over $10 billion. Supply chain, warehousing and distribution, transportation, customs, and compliance are among the company’s services.
The business reiterated in a later press release on Sunday night that the cyberattack prompted it to take down most of its operating systems around the world in order to ensure “the safety of our overall global systems environment.”
The impact is substantial since Expeditors’ operations, which include freight, customs, and distribution activities, are curtailed, potentially causing client shipments to stall.
The company cautions that symptoms will remain offline until backups can be securely restored.
Simultaneously, the corporation is working with its carriers and service partners to find ways to reduce the impact on customers. However, no date has been set for when operations will resume.
A multinational team of cybersecurity professionals is probing the attack and assisting the company in resuming operations.
Although Expeditors did not specify the nature of the event, it is likely that they were infected with ransomware, as network-wide encryption normally necessitates shutting down operations and restoring them from backups.
