LOS ANGELES, June 27 (Xinhua) -- A cyber attack that had caused chaos in Europe halted operations at the Port of Los Angeles' largest terminal on Tuesday, local media reported.
The APM Terminals, operated by the shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk which handles about 16 percent of the world's shipping fleet, was shut down for hours on Tuesday as the company's IT systems were disturbed, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
"Maersk IT systems are down across multiple different sites and business units due to a cyberattack," Concepcion Boo, the spokeswoman for the company, was quoted by Los Angeles Daily News as saying.
"We are assessing the situation in each terminal and we are tracking down what's going on in all our business units," she said.
The cyber attack has also hit Russia's top oil producer Rosneft and a number of Ukrainian commercial banks, as well as state and private companies.
The ransomware, a malicious software, which locks up computer files through encryption demanded a ransom before it set the files free.
No ship was scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday at APM Terminals, and all other trucks had been noticed not to come there, LA Daily News reported.
Several hours off line would have a ripple effect for importers and exporters, and would impact the whole supply chain, retail stores and the stake holders as well, experts said.
