Dutch companies unprepared for cyber attacks, warns council

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Companies in the Netherlands are poorly prepared for cyber attacks, the Cyber Security Council CSR has warned, reports the Financieele Dagblad.

The CSR said there was a serious shortage of cyber security information available to the business community and many organisations, both public and private, should address the issue as quickly as possible.
Only the national government, banks and essential services such as suppliers of electricity, gas and water now exchange information about cyber attacks, said the council. Other companies and organisations are kept out of the loop, it said.
The CSR proposes setting up a Digital Trust Centre to serve as a central information point. The council added it should be easier to report cyber crime.
Rotterdam port register
Separately, Rotterdam wants to make it compulsory to register digital attacks so that all organisations in the port are kept up to date on incidents.
René de Vries, who serves as Rotterdam harbour master and port cyber resilience officer, said it was in the national interest to protect the port against these attacks.
The ransomware attack on the vast APMT container terminal last week had an enormous impact on society he told the Financieele Dagblad on Wednesday. APMT, which handles one-third of the containers in the port, was down for three days.
‘When  a company can no longer function because of a major breakdown, there is a direct physical effect on the rest of the port,’ De Vries reportedly said. ‘Ships can no longer call at terminals, nor can trucks. The whole highway system could be brought to a standstill.’
Was source Ukraine?
IT experts have long questioned the security of the port, the biggest in Europe.
The port’s cyber go-to man said it is essential to know the details and the extent of an attack as soon as possible so that other parties can be involved. He said there were about 800 companies working in the port and they are all loosely connected.
De Vries said the cyber attack which closed APMT last week may have originated in Ukraine and was probably directed at APMT’s Denmark-based parent Maersk. It then moved along to Rotterdam and other locations where Maersk is active.
And as Maersk is the world’s largest container shipping company, the attack covered the globe.
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