Security of global supply chains has become a major strategic challenge. Attacks against logistics providers increased by 73% between 2023 and 2025, according to Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre report. These attacks do not merely target the provider itself: they aim to disrupt freight flows and access data from end customers. An attack on a logistics hub can paralyse the supplies of hundreds of client companies, creating stock shortages and cascading financial losses. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated supply chain fragility; cybercrime exposes another dimension of that vulnerability.
Typical attack vectors
Ransomware dominates attacks on logistics, compromising warehouse and transport management systems. In 2024, an attack on Taiwan’s Universal Freight Forwarding paralysed operations for ten days, affecting approximately 6,000 clients. Estimated industry cost: over 700 million dollars in delays and overruns. Beyond ransomware, logistics providers face data theft: traceability information, customer data, commercial contracts. This data is particularly valuable to competitors or malicious actors. Furthermore, industrial control systems used in warehouses (automation, robotics) become targets: compromise could cause hardware failures or physical accidents.
The challenge of visibility and control
The primary challenge lies in insufficient visibility of risks throughout the chain. A logistics provider typically works with hundreds of subcontractors, whose IT security varies significantly. A 2025 Gartner survey shows that 65% of logistics managers lack complete visibility into their suppliers’ cybersecurity levels. This opacity creates entry points for attackers. Imposing minimum security standards across all partners is complicated: it raises costs for smaller suppliers and may threaten the economic viability of business relationships.
Toward integrated resilience
Facing these challenges, large organisations are restructuring supply strategies around cybersecurity. Standards like ISO 27001 are becoming contractual prerequisites for logistics providers. Meanwhile, adoption of decentralised technologies like blockchain could improve traceability and flow transparency. Finally, cyber insurance specialist products for logistics are emerging, covering impacts of business interruption. However, none of these solutions is a panacea: true resilience requires close collaboration between supply chain managers, IT security teams and insurers.