South Africa: Cyber-Attack Cripples Operations at the Port of Durban for the Second Time in a Month

Days after the Port of Durban resumed operations after a period of civil unrest brought the terminal to a standstill, South Africa’s state-owned port, rail, and pipeline authority, Transnet, announced that a cyber-attack had again crippled the flow of goods in and out of the country. Transnet was forced to declare force majeure for the second time in a month after the cyber-attack on July 22, which forced port workers to manually track ship movements and resort to a paper-based clearance process for cargo at the Ports of Durban, Cape Town, Ngqura, and Gqeberha. The Port of Durban is the largest port terminal in sub-Saharan Africa, and 60 percent of Southern Africa’s containerized trade passes through the harbor. As a result of the cyber-attack, the processing time for imported cargo slowed dramatically as workers were only able to process about three containers per hour, according to Post’s contacts.