Ransomware-hit Rotterdam port terminal reopens; Few Dutch businesses claim damages

Container company APM finally reopened one of its two terminals at the port of Rotterdam after being hit in a global ransomware attack on Tuesday. So far Dutch insurers received only a few damage claims from businesses affected by the Petya attack, BNR reports after talking to a number of large insurers.

There is still only limited access to APM's reopened terminal on the Maasvlakte, NU.nl reports. Only the delivery of export products by truck is currently possible. The company's second, fully automated terminal on the Tweede Maasvlakte is still completely closed.

On Thursday night parent company Maersk announced that the situation at APM continues to improve. The damage the company suffered is still unclear. "We are so busy solving the problems that we have not yet been able to calculate that", an APM spokesperson said. The consequences of the ransomware attack spread further than only leaving the terminals closed - the malware also infected the company's server and employees had to find other ways of communicating. WhatsApp groups and Gmail accounts came to the rescue.

TNT Express is also still having problems. On Friday a spokesperson told NU.nl that the situation is unchanged - TNT's national and regional services are operating to a large extent, though more slowly than usual. The intercontinental network is still experiencing delays.

Sjaak Schouteren, Cyber Risk Solutions manager at insurance broker Aon, thinks that the Dutch insurers escaped having to pay out massive damages this time around, BNR reports. Although he did add that the picture may be somewhat distorted, because Aon only looked at clients that are actually insured against cyber attacks.

According to Schouteren, the biggest cost of hit companies lies far beyond the amount they had to pay to cyber criminals to regain access to their computers. The costs are mostly in forensic investigation - finding out where the malware spread to and what it did. "Those investigation costs can quickly reach to 20 thousand euros. And if, for example, personal data is involved, legal advice is needed. Then you can add another 8 thousand euros."

Schouteren said that the total costs of cyber incidents in the Netherlands currently stand at around 10 billion euros, and that will only increase.