Australian authorities are investigating a “nationally significant” cyberattack that shuttered several ports run by DP World Australia, and warned that the interruption could last days and affect trade shipments.

The government convened a crisis meeting on Saturday to coordinate its response to the hack, which was detected on Friday, and led DP World to limit access to four of Australia’s largest ports. National cybersecurity coordinator Darren Goldie said agencies will gather again on Sunday, and work with the company to resume operations.

“Our priority is to assist DP World Australia to resolve the incident, so they are in a position to restore access to the ports they operate across the country,” Goldie said in posts on social network X. “This interruption is likely to continue for a number of days, and will impact the movement of goods into and out of the country.”

DP World said it detected an “intrusion” into its system on Friday, and immediately disconnected internet connectivity, the Australian Financial Review (AFR) reported, citing a company statement. While that stopped unauthorised access into its network, it also led to “key systems which underpin operations at their Australian ports not functioning normally”, the company said.

The port closures in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle threaten to hobble supply chains, which are yet to recover fully from the effects of the pandemic. The disruption comes at a time when DP World’s operations are already embroiled in an ongoing strike by the Maritime Union of Australia over wages and better work conditions.

The company did not reply to emails or phone calls from Bloomberg News requesting comments outside of regular business hours.

DP World said its actions were “necessary to contain the incident and minimise the impact on their employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders", the AFR reported. The company is working with authorities and stakeholders to ensure “sensitive inbound freight can be prioritised and retrieved”, the paper said.

The Australian Cyber Security Center is working with DP World, and is providing technical advice and assistance, Goldie said. Meetings earlier involved the National Coordination Mechanism and the National Emergency Management Agency to “consider and address impacts arising from the cyber incident”, he said.

The National Coordination Mechanism brings together various agencies of the federal, state and territory governments in Australia with industry and private sector stakeholders to respond to crises in the country, according to its website. Formed to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact, the mechanism is now a part of the crisis management framework of Australia.

  - Bloomberg