Still have clients telling you they don’t need cyber cover? One Canadian company can provide 10 million reasons why they should.
Nautilus Minerals and Dubai-based marine solutions company Marine Assets Corporation (MAC) reported earlier this week as having been the victims of a cyber attack, an attack that resulted in Nautilus paying a $10-million deposit intended for MAC into an unknown account.
The deposit was part of an $18-million charterer’s guarantee that was to be provided at the start of a charter of a vessel that would first be deployed for use at the Solwara 1 project, offshore Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.
Nautilus – a Canadian company – explained that under the terms of the vessel charter agreement with MAC, according to MiningWeekly.com, it had arranged to pay MAC a $10-million deposit after the shipbuilding contract between MAC and Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding became effective, which was late November last year.
Nautilus discovered in December that an unknown third party had launched a cyber attack on it and MAC, resulting in Nautilus paying the deposit into a bank account it believed to be MAC’s, but which MAC had subsequently advised was not its account.
“The matter was promptly referred to the authorities in the relevant jurisdictions and an investigation is under way,” Nautilus said in a statement. “The company has also engaged a cyber-security firm to ensure the ongoing security of its and MAC’s networks, and to investigate the source of the cyber attack. MAC and the company are cooperating with each other and the authorities to facilitate the timely resolution of the investigations.”
