Maersk estimated that the NotPetya cyber attack in June cost the transport and shipping giant a massive US$300million.

Ukrainian accounting software, MeDoc, distributed the malware, containing backdoors into the networks software.

According to Computer Weekly, Maersk is known to be one of the worst companies hit, with a number of its IT systems forced to shut down across selected business units, and multiple sites, causing 76 of its ports to be congested.

The company announced that as soon as it became aware that its systems were affected, action was taken, which included closing down infected networks, although no data loss or data breach to third parties occurred.

Maersk’s financial report said: “Information security has a high business priority at Maersk. This cyber attack was a previously unseen type of malware, and updates and patches applied to both the Windows systems and antivirus were not an effective protection in this case.”

‘Isolating hacker incidents’

Maersk’s chief executive, Soren Skou, announced: “We have done a lot to harden our defences and will do more by increasing our ability to isolate hacker incidents and rebuild systems faster.

“One of the key learnings was how much customers – and authorities and suppliers – helped us. Many customers took the view ‘this could have been us’ – this is a global problem – we businesses need to help each other.

“We will definitely be targeted again and we will probably be successfully hacked again, with all the vulnerabilities inherent in systems that can be found in the darker recesses of the internet.”

Companies outside Ukraine were also affected, including: advertising firm WPP, US-based pharmaceutical company Merck, multinational law firm DLA Piper, Russian oil company Rosneft, Netherlands-based shipping company TNT and French construction materials company Saint-Gobain.

Written by Leah Alger