One of Australia’s largest port operators is back up after a cyberattack.
From Friday to Monday morning, DP World Australia container terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth were affected.
Around 40% of products entering and departing the country are managed by the corporation.
The BBC says the disruption has not affected major Australian supermarkets’ supply.
Dubai state-owned DP World Australia said its ports started operations at 09:00 local time “following successful tests of key systems overnight”.
Added: “The company expects that approximately 5,000 containers will move out of the four Australian terminals today.”
The government’s cyber-security co-ordinator, Darren Goldie, said the operator was making “good progress” at restoring its sites on Monday.
He said the government had not yet identified the cyber-attackers, which led the corporation to cut its ports from the internet.
DP World cut internet connection at its ports on Friday to prevent “any ongoing unauthorised access” to its network.
Going offline prevented trucks from transporting containers in and out of affected sites.
Monday’s service restart is the first step in fighting the network attack. DP World said it was examining the outage and protecting its systems from cyberattacks.
The restart of port operations does not end this incident. DP World Australia said its inquiry and remediation will likely last.
Dual blow
Industrial action at DP World has delayed customer deliveries.
Workers have staged 24-hour strikes and refused to unload trucks since October.
Last Monday, the Maritime Union of Australia extended industrial action to 20 November to negotiate salary increases.
The cyberattack raised concerns about medical equipment and Christmas presents being interrupted.
Woolworths’ representative said it was monitoring the situation and did not “anticipate any immediate impacts at this time”.
Woolworths’ Christmas items have arrived in Australia, according to the BBC.
Coles, another retailer watching DP World, is not likely to be affected by the outage.
Cyberattacks in Australia have increased since late-2022.
The Albanese government announced intentions to modify cyber-security regulations and create an agency to coordinate breach responses earlier this year.
Next week, the government will unveil its new rules, which may tighten company reporting.
