Cyber Security is Mission Critical for Logistics Companies

Continuing the discussion on technology, information systems and data during the Future of Logistics conference, moderator Lars Jensen asked the panellists how they were investing to ensure their IT systems and software were resilient in the face of cyber-attacks?

Albert Kraak, COO of DP World Logistics said that ports and airports are key infrastructure for a country and if they were shut down because of cyber-attacks, day-to-day life would become impossible.

Mr Kraak said that although IT was not his area of expertise, he was aware that there were some “extremely clever” people working at DP World to keep their data and IT infrastructure secure 24x7.

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Madhav Kurup, Regional CEO of Hellman Worldwide Logistics MESA said that cyber security was a “massive investment” globally for Hellman and a key priority for the company. As part of this security framework the company carried out mock phishing exercises within the organisation from time to time.

Mr Kurup said that the central security team at Hellman periodically sent out phishing emails to simulate cyber-attacks and monitored how the targeted employees reacted to such emails. In this way they were building awareness in staff members and training them on how to appropriately respond to cyber-attacks.

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Tobias Maier, CEO MENA, Saloodo! said that DHL’s Group CEO was always reiterating the importance of cyber security at all conference meetings saying that it was a key responsibility of any country manager or CEO and they had to “personally ensure that everything was set up correctly.”

Mr Maier said that DHL recently simulated a major cyber-attack on the systems of its top management and this turned out to be quite an eye-opening experience for the targeted personnel who were subsequently trained to take appropriate actions.

According to Mr Maier cyber-attacks were identified as one of the key security risks at DHL and the whole industry needs to become aware of this and gear up to successfully deal with cyber security threats.

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