THE HAGUE, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Four days after several companies in the Netherlands were affected by the hostage virus that strikes around the world, the systems of APM container terminals in the port of Rotterdam are still down, Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported on Friday.
The company stated on Tuesday that it was affected by the ransomware attack that hit its parent company Maersk, and has been out of order since. It is still unclear when the unloading of ships at the terminals in Rotterdam can resume.
On Thursday, Maersk announced that its terminals in many of the 76 ports it operates in could resume operations. "Impacted terminals have implemented business continuity plans and operations teams are carefully implementing IT solutions that will restore full operations," the statement read.
However, problems remain in the Rotterdam terminals. These problems have not yet resulted in congestion, but if they persist, logistical problems may arise, a spokesman of the terminal said to NOS on Thursday.
The costs involved are increasing up to millions. "Thousands of trucks can not do their job, containers stay put, ships cannot be unloaded and we also cannot send out any containers ourselves," Arthur van Dijk, Chairman of entrepreneurial organization Transport and Logistics Netherlands (TLN), told NOS.
Other companies located in the Netherlands, such as drug manufacturer MSD and package carrier TNT, were also affected by the virus that quickly spread around the world, affecting companies in Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, India, Spain, and so on.
The extent to which MSD is affected is unknown. FedEx, parent company of TNT, announced on Thursday that everything is working again at TNT, but the systems are still very slow, resulting in delivery delays, NOS reported.
Both in Ukraine and at the container terminals of APM in Rotterdam the same ransomware texts have appeared on the computer screens, asking for ransom in the form of bitcoins. With a ransomware attack or a hostage virus attack, hackers 'have taken hostage of files', and they will only decrypt the files if the target pays money.
