With costs of $100,000 a day for a stranded ship, the growing threat of cyber hackers is a growing concern to industry, which needs to step up its defence, speakers at a session at last week’s Europort said.

It’s an extremely expensive business: while most ransomware was actually unsuccessful, he said, the costs of legal defence were often greater than the ransom, not to mention the cost of a ship lying idle. While the average cost of a cyber attack to a shipping company is around $500,000, there have been cases where it has been far higher.