Cyberattack on Ceva Logistics warehouses in Europe impacts retailers

Operations at eight Ceva Logistics warehouses in Europe were disrupted over the weekend by a cyberattack, causing shipping delays for many of the freight giant’s retail customers with inventory stored in those locations, according to a source close to the situation. Affected customers were notified Aug.

1 that a cyber intrusion was impacting part of Ceva’s contract logistics operation, the person told FreightWaves. Ceva Logistics has not commented publicly about the digital break-in, which is being investigated by the Dutch Data Protection Authority, other law enforcement agencies and the companies involved.

Ceva is one of the largest third-party logistics providers, with more than 1,000 warehouses worldwide. Last year the company generated $18. 3 billion in revenue. No other Ceva systems beyond the eight warehouses were impacted.

Air, ocean, ground and rail transportation management activities are continuing without incident, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation. The impact of the cyber intrusion varied by customer. Some customers were more dependent on applications and services at the eight warehouses than others.

De Bijenkorf, which operates retail outlets in the Netherlands and sells goods online, and e-commerce retailer bol posted alerts Wednesday informing customers that hackers had compromised the information technology systems of a logistics vendor and that some of their private data, but not credit card or payment details, was at risk.

“The partner’s investigation has shown that unauthorized parties gained access to some of its systems and data. The incident involves two systems used to process orders from one of bol’s distribution centres. No bol systems were affected. However, customer data processed through this location may have been accessed or copied,” bol said on its website.

“Upon discovering the incident, the warehousing partner immediately took measures to stop the unauthorized access and engaged external cybersecurity specialists to conduct a further investigation. As a precaution, bol immediately suspended all data exchanges with this partner. These will only resume once it has been confirmed that this can be done safely.”

Bol said its products and those of selling partners stored at affected locations have been temporarily taken offline, and some orders have been canceled or may experience delays. All other bol logistics locations remain operational, it added. “The processing of orders, returns, and refunds may take longer than customers are used to.

Our stores remain open and online orders can be placed,” De Bijenkorf said in its message. Some applications and services at the distribution centers have been restored for certain customers, the source said. The freight transportation sector has been a frequent victim of cyber and ransomware attacks.

Shipping giant Maersk suffered a major attack several years ago, as did Seattle-based Expeditors International. Estes Forwarding Worldwide was hit by a cyberattack last summer.

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