Maersk’s $700 Million Ransomware Fiasco: How a Power Outage Saved the Day!
The 2017 ransomware attack on A P Moller Maersk cost a whopping $700 million and forced the company offline for months. Meanwhile, a power cut in Lagos saved the day, as Maersk’s uninfected server became the “yeast to rebuild the network,” according to former CISO Adam Banks. Talk about a blackout breakthrough!
Hot Take:
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or in Maersk’s case, when a ransomware attack gives you chaos, thank your lucky stars for Nigerian power outages and a corporate jet! Who knew Lagos could be the digital savior for a shipping giant?
Key Points:
- Maersk faced a $700 million ransomware attack in 2017, affecting their operations worldwide.
- A power outage in Lagos saved Maersk by preserving an uninfected copy of their Active Directory.
- Banks, the CISO, coordinated a global recovery effort involving 12,000 people, including Microsoft and IBM staff.
- Maersk opted to rebuild systems from scratch rather than decrypt them, speeding up recovery.
- The incident turned Maersk into a case study on effective cyber recovery by the World Economic Forum.
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