CHARLOTTE — North Carolina ports are recovering after a hack disrupted operations on Wednesday.
It affected an inland port in Charlotte, as well as the coast in Wilmington and Morehead City.
North Carolina port officials said an outside group launched the hack on their IT system, delaying operations.
A spokesperson says the breach has been contained, and they are in the recovery process.
Channel 9’s Evan Donovan spoke with a cybersecurity expert about this breach.
The IT team is still figuring out which systems were affected and restoring those services.
Most of us think of water when we hear the word “port.” However, Charlotte’s inland port is a crucial corridor, which is a 10-acre site that can hold 2,000 containers.
State officials said, “Late Tuesday, the North Carolina Ports IT system was hacked by an outside actor or group ... The breach has been contained, and we are now in the recovery process.”
“It does look like it was targeted on critical infrastructure, which is typical. We see this a lot,” said Benji Hutchinson, CEO of Babel Street, which is an AI software company that does risk intelligence to help businesses prevent these types of attacks.
Logistics companies and locations are often considered soft targets by hackers, he said.
“Because you’ve got a bunch of activity happening at once. You’ve got people managing intakes, imports, exports,” Hutchinson said. “You’ve got folks managing different trucks, boats, vessels, and there’s a lot of people involved. So, there’s just a lot of moving parts and outside actors who want to inflict harm. They see that as an opportunity.”
State officials said the breach affected all three North Carolina ports, which are in Wilmington and Morehead City on the coast and the inland port of Charlotte located near the airport.
The containers are offloaded at the coast, put on trains and shipped to Charlotte.
From there, they can be trucked throughout the region.
“The first thing is to stop the bleeding and prevent any sort of further attacks or damage, and the second piece is to understand the extent of the damage that’s been that’s already happened,” Hutchinson said.
Statement from a spokesperson with North Carolina Ports:
Late (Wednesday), the North Carolina Ports IT system was hacked by an outside actor or group. Our IT team immediately enacted our Cybersecurity Contingency Plan and engaged relevant partners, including the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The breach has been contained, and we are now in the recovery process. This breach affected all three locations: Wilmington, Morehead City, and Charlotte.
This is a developing story. Check back with wsoctv.com and watch Eyewitness News for updates.