Security for Ports and Terminals: the anatomy of a ransomware that stops container movement
Ports and terminals are critical nodes of Brazilian foreign trade. When the TO/OT network that commands cranes, RTGs and the yard management system is compromised, the physical operation stops and the entire logistics chain freezes. See how Decripte contains, recovers and structures the security of this environment.
Direct answer
To protect a port or terminal against ransomware and attacks on cargo movement, Decripte recommends four simultaneous fronts: rigorously segment the IT network (administrative, customs and ERP systems) from the TO/OT network (crane PLCs, RTGs, yard management/TOS systems, weighbridges and automated gates) with industrial firewalls and demilitarized zones (DMZ-OT) following the zones-and-conduits model of IEC 62443; maintain a 24x7 SOC actively monitoring both domains with event correlation and lateral-movement detection; have contracted Incident Response with a containment SLA of up to 1 hour and isolation runbooks that preserve the safe physical operation of the equipment; and ensure continuous compliance (LGPD, ISO 27001, and when there is card-data handling in the port operation, PCI-DSS) with vulnerability management and recurring pentests. The critical point is that stopping a terminal is not just an IT loss: it is a ship in demurrage, a container stuck in the yard, customs clearance frozen and a rupture across the entire foreign-trade logistics chain. The OT segmentation architecture, system redundancy and continuous monitoring are what turn a ransomware from a "paralysis of days" into an "incident contained in hours".
24/7
SOC monitoring the terminal's IT and OT
<=1h
Containment SLA in Incident Response
IEC 62443
Zones-and-conduits model for port OT
LGPD + ISO 27001
Compliance that clients and insurers require
In summary
- ›A terminal's number-one risk is not data leakage: it is operational unavailability. A ransomware that encrypts the TOS (Terminal Operating System) or paralyzes the network that commands cranes and ship-to-shore gantries interrupts the physical movement of containers, generates ship demurrage and freezes customs clearance.
- ›Most attacks enter through IT (email, exposed RDP, VPN without MFA, compromised supplier) and migrate to TO for lack of segmentation. The real separation between administrative and industrial networks, with a DMZ-OT and the zones-and-conduits model of IEC 62443, is the most decisive defense.
- ›Without a 24x7 SOC, the time between the initial compromise and the ransomware detonation (days to weeks) goes unnoticed. Decripte monitors IT and OT continuously and seeks the signs of lateral movement before encryption.
- ›Incident Response with a containment SLA of up to 1 hour and runbooks specific to the port environment is what separates an incident of hours from a paralysis of days with a multimillion loss.
- ›Reliable recovery depends on segmented, immutable and tested backups, plus golden images of the TOS servers and the customs-integration systems. A backup the attacker can encrypt is not a backup.
- ›Port security is also compliance: LGPD for data of people and cargo, ISO 27001 for the management system, and PCI-DSS when there is card processing in the operation. Clients, shipowners and insurers have come to require evidence.
Cibersegurança para Ports and Terminals
Ports and terminals are critical nodes of Brazilian foreign trade. When the TO/OT network that commands cranes, RTGs and the yard management system is compromised, the physical operation stops and the entire logistics chain freezes. See how Decripte contains, recovers and structures the security of this environment.
Why ports and terminals became a priority target
Ports and terminals are, literally, the physical bottlenecks of foreign trade. Through Brazilian port infrastructure passes the vast majority of the country's import and export volume, and every hour of operation represents containers moved, ships berthed within a contracted window and perishable or high-value cargo in transit. This concentration of value and logistical dependence is exactly what makes the sector attractive to ransomware groups: the attacker knows the pressure to pay the ransom is enormous, because every day down costs demurrage, contractual penalties, loss of a berthing window and rupture across entire supply chains that depend on that terminal.
What has changed in recent years is the convergence between the digital and physical worlds. Modern terminals operate with a Terminal Operating System (TOS) that orchestrates berth allocation, yard planning, the movement sequence and integration with quay cranes (ship-to-shore gantries), rubber-tired transtainers (RTG) and rail-mounted ones (RMG), plus automated gate systems, container OCR, weighbridges, license-plate reading and integration with the Federal Revenue and other consenting agencies. All of this depends on networks, servers and PLCs. When this digital layer goes down, the physical layer stops with it: the crane does not receive the movement order, the truck does not pass through the gate, customs clearance is not released.
The attack that matters is the one that stops the operation
In terminals, the worst scenario is rarely data leakage. It is unavailability. A ransomware that encrypts the TOS, the yard database servers and the customs-integration systems interrupts the physical movement of cargo. From there, the loss clock counts in hours: a ship in demurrage, a congested yard, held-up containers and foreign-trade clients with no forecast for release.
There is also a specifically port-related vector: fraud and container diversion. Cargo-release systems, pickup PINs, gate authorizations and integrations with customs brokers are targets for manipulation. Compromising the layer that decides which container leaves with which authorization enables high-value cargo diversion, smuggling and customs fraud. Port security, therefore, is not only availability: it is integrity of the systems that control who takes what.
The threat map of a container terminal
The five risks that keep the operation awake at night
A port's attack surface combines the worst of both worlds: the complexity of a corporate IT network (email, ERP, HR, financial systems, integrations with clients and suppliers) and the fragility of an industrial TO/OT environment full of legacy systems, protocols without authentication and equipment that cannot simply be restarted or updated at any moment. Decripte treats each of the vectors below as a concrete defense scenario, with detection and response designed for it.
Threat vectors mapped for the port sector
- ✓Ransomware paralyzing terminals: encryption of the TOS, the yard databases and the integration servers, with a total stop of the physical movement.
- ✓Attacks on cargo-movement TO: manipulation or denial of service on PLCs and control systems of cranes, RTG/RMG, gates and weighbridges.
- ✓Compromise of customs systems: attack on the integrations with the Federal Revenue and consenting agencies, causing the freezing or tampering of clearance.
- ✓Fraud and container diversion: manipulation of pickup authorizations, release PINs and gate records to divert cargo.
- ✓Unavailability of the port operation: DDoS, cascading failure and single dependencies without redundancy that bring down the entire terminal.
The element connecting almost all these scenarios is the bridge between IT and TO. In more incidents than one imagines, the attacker does not directly break into the crane control system. They enter through corporate IT, through a phishing email that delivers credentials, an internet-exposed RDP, a VPN without MFA or a compromised maintenance supplier. From that entry point, they perform reconnaissance, escalate privileges and look for the path to the network that controls the operation. Where there is no segmentation, this path is short.
OT does not tolerate the classic IT playbook
In IT, the standard response to a compromised host is to isolate and shut down. In port OT, shutting down the wrong server can mean locking up a crane with a suspended container or interrupting a gate with trucks in line. That is why Incident Response needs runbooks that consider physical safety and operational continuity, not just logical containment.
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IT/OT segmentation: the defense that most reduces impact
If there were a single measure to highlight in a terminal's security, it would be the real segmentation between the IT network and the TO/OT network. Most ransomware attacks that stop physical operations only manage to reach the industrial layer because the two networks are flat, interconnected without control, sharing the same Active Directory domain, the same administrative credentials and the same network paths. Breaking this continuity is what turns an IT compromise into a contained scare, rather than a total paralysis.
Decripte structures this separation following the zones-and-conduits model of IEC 62443, the international security standard for industrial automation and control systems, complemented by the level logic of the Purdue model. In practice, this means defining trust zones (corporate, industrial DMZ, supervision/SCADA, control/PLC, process) and rigorously controlling each conduit between them. No traffic crosses from IT to TO without passing through an intermediate DMZ-OT, with industrial firewalls that understand automation protocols, traffic inspection and the golden rule: TO never initiates unnecessary outbound connections and IT never reaches a PLC directly.
The principle: compromising IT must not grant access to TO
The architectural goal is that, even if an attacker fully dominates the terminal's administrative network, they find an impassable barrier before the layer that commands cranes, RTGs and gates. Segmentation, DMZ-OT, separate accounts, absence of transitive trust and dedicated monitoring of each conduit make this barrier something real, and not just a network diagram.
Beyond the macro segmentation between IT and TO, microsegmentation is applied within TO itself: the ship-to-shore gantry network does not need to talk to the weighbridge network, which does not need to talk to the gate OCR system. Each operational cell is isolated so that an infection in one piece of equipment does not propagate horizontally to all the others. This lateral containment is what prevents a single compromised point from bringing down the entire terminal.
Pillars of the OT segmentation architecture in ports
- ✓Zones and conduits per IEC 62443, mapped onto the levels of the Purdue model.
- ✓Mandatory DMZ-OT between the corporate network and the industrial network, with no direct path.
- ✓Industrial firewalls with automation-protocol awareness and restrictive-by-default rules.
- ✓Microsegmentation between TO cells (quay, yard, gates, weighbridges, OCR).
- ✓Separate accounts and directory between IT and TO, without shared administrative credentials.
- ✓Supplier remote access via a controlled broker, with MFA, session recording and maintenance windows.
24x7 SOC: seeing the attack before encryption
Ransomware does not detonate the minute it enters. Between the initial compromise and the mass encryption there is a window, frequently of days or weeks, in which the attacker performs reconnaissance, collects credentials, escalates privileges, disables defenses, identifies and tries to destroy backups and moves laterally toward the most critical systems. This window is the defense opportunity. Those who have continuous visibility detect it; those who do not only discover the attack when the screens display the ransom note and the cranes stop.
Decripte's 24x7 SOC monitors the terminal's two domains simultaneously. On IT, it correlates events from email, endpoints, identity, remote accesses and network traffic in search of successful phishing, anomalous use of privileged accounts, lateral-movement tools and exfiltration. On TO, the monitoring is designed for the industrial environment: passive traffic detection so as not to interfere with the control systems, a baseline of the normal behavior of the PLCs and the TOS servers, and alerts for any command, connection or configuration change outside the expected pattern.
Why the internal operation alone is not enough
Port operations run in three shifts, weekends and holidays, precisely when attackers prefer to act, counting on lower vigilance. An external 24x7 SOC ensures that at 3 a.m. on a Sunday there are analysts following the terminal's alerts, with playbooks ready and a direct path to activate Incident Response.
The value of the SOC lies not only in generating alerts, but in turning them into action. Decripte works with detection prioritized by asset criticality: an anomalous signal on the TOS server or in the DMZ-OT receives immediate treatment, because that is where the heart of the operation is. The correlation between IT and TO events allows identifying exactly the dangerous moment, when a compromise that began in corporate email starts approaching the industrial network, and acting before the bridge is crossed.
Incident Response in a port environment
When detection becomes incident confirmation, the speed and precision of the response define the size of the loss. Decripte offers Incident Response with a containment SLA of up to 1 hour, but in a terminal containment cannot be blind. Isolating the wrong segment can lock up equipment in motion or interrupt the operation in an unsafe way. That is why the runbooks are built together with the port's operations team, mapping in advance what can be isolated immediately, what requires a controlled and orderly stop, and what needs to preserve physical safety before any logical action.
Containment without a plan is costly in both directions
Containing too fast without understanding the operational dependency can stop the terminal out of excess caution. Containing too slowly lets the ransomware spread to TO. The balance only exists when there are ready runbooks, defined roles and pre-agreed decisions before the incident, not improvised during the chaos.
Decripte's Incident Response covers the full cycle: containment to stop the propagation and preserve what is still healthy; forensic investigation to understand how the attacker entered, where they moved and what they touched; eradication to remove persistence, compromised credentials and malicious artifacts; and recovery to bring the systems back safely, in the right order, without reintroducing the threat. Everything documented for the incident report, which sustains the regulatory obligations and the communication with clients, shipowners and insurers.
The customs factor
In terminals, recovery is not only technical. Re-establishing the integration with the Federal Revenue and the consenting agencies, validating that no clearance was tampered with and reconciling the physical state of the yard with the logical state of the TOS are critical steps. Releasing the wrong cargo after an incident generates fraud and liability. Decripte treats reconciliation as part of the response, not as a post-recovery detail.
What would an incident in ports and terminals cost? See your real risk before it happens.
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Reliable recovery: backups the attacker does not encrypt
The difference between paying ransom and recovering on your own lies, almost always, in the quality of the backups. Modern ransomware groups do not encrypt only production data: they actively hunt the backups, because they know that an accessible and recoverable backup takes away their negotiating power. A backup that is on the same network, with the same credentials and online all the time is, in practice, one more target, not a safeguard.
What makes port recovery truly reliable
- ✓Segmented and immutable backups, out of reach of the production credentials and protected against deletion and overwriting.
- ✓Offline or air-gapped copies of the most critical systems (TOS, yard databases, customs integration).
- ✓Golden images of the essential servers for fast rebuild from a clean, validated state.
- ✓Periodic restoration tests, with recovery time measured, not assumed.
- ✓An operational continuity plan with manual contingency procedures to maintain minimal movement during the unavailability.
- ✓Reconciliation between the physical state of the yard and the logical state of the systems as a mandatory step of the return.
Reliable recovery is also a matter of architectural redundancy. The terminal's critical systems should not depend on a single server, a single link or a single data center. Decripte helps design redundancy at the right points, balancing cost and criticality, so that the failure of one component does not become the stop of the entire terminal. Well-done redundancy is what allows part of the operation to continue while the other is recovered.
Tested recovery is real recovery
There is no use having a backup if no one knows how long it takes to restore, in what order, and whether the result works. Decripte turns the recovery plan into something verified: restoration tests, measured times and rehearsed procedures, so that on the day of the incident the team executes a known plan, rather than discovering the problems at the worst possible time.
Compliance and continuous risk management
Port security is not a project with a beginning and an end: it is a continuous program. Decripte structures this program supported by recognized standards and applicable regulatory requirements. The LGPD, overseen by the ANPD, governs the processing of personal data that circulates in the operation (clients, drivers, customs brokers, employees) and imposes duties of security, incident notification and accountability. ISO 27001 provides the information security management system structure that corporate clients and auditors increasingly ask for. And when there is processing of payment-card data in the operation, PCI-DSS applies and must be demonstrated.
Who demands security evidence today
It is not only the regulator. Shipowners, large shippers, foreign-trade clients and cyber-risk insurers have come to require concrete evidence of controls: a security policy, recent intrusion tests, an incident response plan and vulnerability management. Without this, contracts are lost and policies become more expensive or unfeasible.
Vulnerability management closes the cycle. In a terminal, this means continuously inventorying the IT and TO assets, prioritizing fixes by real risk to the business (an exposed TOS server weighs more than an isolated administrative workstation), and dealing with the reality that many industrial systems cannot be updated at any moment, requiring compensating controls such as reinforced segmentation and dedicated monitoring while the maintenance window has not arrived. Recurring pentests validate, in practice, whether the defenses hold, instead of assuming they do.
Compliance and risk program for terminals
- ✓LGPD: data mapping, legal basis, technical security and an incident-notification plan for the ANPD.
- ✓ISO 27001: information security management system aligned with client and audit requirements.
- ✓PCI-DSS: when there is card-data handling in the port operation.
- ✓Continuous vulnerability management, with risk-based prioritization and compensating controls for legacy OT.
- ✓Recurring pentest of IT, applications and perimeter, validating the real effectiveness of the defenses.
- ✓Evidence organized for clients, shipowners and cyber-risk insurers.
How Decripte works together with the port operation
None of the measures above works if it is imposed top-down, ignoring the terminal's operational reality. Decripte works side by side with the port's IT, automation and operations teams, because they are the ones who know the physical dependencies, the possible maintenance windows and the limits of what can or cannot be interrupted. Security is built on top of the operation, not against it.
The starting point is usually a free Threat Management diagnosis at decripte.com.br/intelligence-center, which gives initial visibility of exposure and risk with no commitment. From there, it evolves to an architecture design, deployment of monitoring, contracting of a 24x7 SOC and Incident Response, and the continuous maturation of the compliance program. The final goal is simple to state and hard to reach without method: that the terminal keeps container movement flowing, with the peace of mind of knowing that, if something happens, there is someone to detect it in minutes and contain it in up to one hour.
Start with the diagnosis, evolve to continuous protection
Free exposure and threat diagnosis at decripte.com.br/intelligence-center. To structure a 24x7 SOC, Incident Response and the terminal's security program, contract at decripte.io/start or talk to the team through /contato.
Anatomy of a real case: the ransomware that stopped a terminal's container movement
Real, de-identified example
Anonymized real-world example (client not identified), built to demonstrate how Decripte acts. A mid-sized container terminal operates 24 hours with a commercial TOS, integration with the Federal Revenue, automated gates and a fleet of ship-to-shore gantries and RTGs commanded by control systems connected to the industrial network. The IT network and the TO network historically share the same Active Directory domain and have no real DMZ-OT between them. The remote access of a crane-maintenance supplier is done via a VPN without MFA. It is through this VPN that the incident begins.
Initial vector (Day 0)
The credentials of the crane supplier's maintenance account, without MFA, are obtained by a criminal group through an infostealer on the supplier's machine. The attacker accesses the VPN, lands on the terminal's corporate network and begins silent reconnaissance, mapping Active Directory, file servers and the network topology. Nothing visible to the internal team.
Lateral movement (Days 1 to 4)
The attacker collects credentials in memory, escalates privileges to a domain-administrator account and realizes that the same domain gives visibility to the network that hosts the TOS server and the operation's supervision systems. They disable endpoint protections where they can and locate the backup repository, which is online and accessible with the compromised credentials.
Detection (Day 4)
Decripte's 24x7 SOC, monitoring the environment, correlates a set of signals: anomalous use of an administrative account outside hours, lateral-movement tools and attempts to access the segment bordering the industrial network. The high-criticality alert is generated in minutes and Incident Response is activated immediately, before the mass encryption.
Containment (Day 4, within 1 hour)
Following the runbook agreed with the operation, Decripte isolates the compromised accounts, drops the remote-access sessions, blocks the conduit between the corporate network and the TO edge and preserves the crane control systems, which keep operating in a safe mode under supervision. The propagation to the TOS and to the industrial network is interrupted. Part of the corporate IT environment is segmented and frozen for forensics.
Eradication (Days 4 to 6)
The forensic investigation reconstructs the attacker's path from the supplier VPN. Persistence, created accounts and malicious artifacts are removed, all privileged credentials are rotated, the supplier VPN is rebuilt with mandatory MFA and session recording, and the transitive trust between IT and TO is cut. It is confirmed that the TOS server and the customs integration were not encrypted, because containment occurred before detonation.
Recovery (Days 6 to 8)
The affected IT systems are rebuilt from golden images and backups validated as clean. The integration with the Federal Revenue and the consenting agencies is re-established and tested, and the physical state of the yard is reconciled with the logical state of the TOS to ensure that no pickup authorization was tampered with. The operation returns to its normal pace without having paid ransom and without loss of production data.
Lessons and hardening (Day 8 onward)
Decripte implements the definitive segmentation between IT and TO with a DMZ-OT and a zones-and-conduits model, separates the directory and the administrative credentials of the two domains, makes the backups immutable and offline, institutes MFA and an access broker for all suppliers and expands the dedicated monitoring of the industrial network. A pentest validates the new barriers.
Outcome with Decripte
Because there was a 24x7 SOC monitoring and Incident Response with containment in up to 1 hour, what could have been a paralysis of several days with a ransom payment, ship demurrage and frozen customs clearance became an incident contained before encryption, with no ransom paid and no data loss. More importantly, the terminal emerged from the episode with a real OT segmentation architecture, backups the attacker can no longer reach and supplier access under control, ceasing to be an easy target. This is an anonymized real-world example; each terminal has its particularities, and the diagnosis at decripte.com.br/intelligence-center is the first step to mapping yours.
Don’t wait for the incident. Start hardening ports and terminals today.
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How Decripte responds to an incident at a port terminal
Decripte's Incident Response for ports is designed for the reality of an environment where the digital commands the physical. Each step balances containment speed with operational safety, with a containment SLA of up to 1 hour.
- Activation and immediate triage: the 24x7 SOC confirms the incident, classifies criticality by the affected assets (TOS, customs integration, TO network, gate systems) and dispatches the Incident Response team with the containment SLA of up to 1 hour running.
- Operationally safe containment: following runbooks pre-agreed with the operation, it isolates compromised accounts and segments, blocks the conduit between IT and TO and preserves the control systems of cranes and RTGs in a safe mode, avoiding dangerously stopping equipment.
- Forensic investigation: it identifies the entry vector (phishing, VPN, RDP, supplier), reconstructs the lateral movement, determines what was accessed or exfiltrated and establishes the attack timeline to support decisions and legal obligations.
- Complete eradication: it removes persistence, malicious accounts and artifacts, rotates privileged credentials, fixes the exploited flaws and closes the paths that allowed movement between networks, ensuring the threat does not return during recovery.
- Orderly and validated recovery: it restores systems from immutable backups and golden images confirmed as clean, in the correct order of dependency, re-establishes the customs integration and reconciles the physical state of the yard with the logical state of the TOS.
- Communication and regulatory obligations: it supports the communication with clients, shipowners and insurers and the assessment of notification to the ANPD when personal data is involved, with a technical report and incident chronology.
- Post-incident hardening: it converts the learning into permanent controls (definitive IT/TO segmentation, MFA for suppliers, offline backups, expanded OT monitoring) so that the same attack does not happen again.
- Validation through pentest: it tests the new barriers with a controlled offensive exercise, confirming in practice that the exploited path was effectively closed.
How Decripte structures the security of ports and terminals
Before, during and after any incident, a terminal's security must rest on stable pillars. Decripte structures the program around five mutually reinforcing fronts, always built together with the port operation.
IT/TO segmentation and zone architecture
Real separation between the administrative network and the industrial network with a DMZ-OT, the zones-and-conduits model of IEC 62443 over the levels of the Purdue model, microsegmentation within TO and the absence of transitive trust, so that compromising IT does not grant access to the layer that moves the containers.
Continuous monitoring with a 24x7 SOC
Simultaneous visibility of IT and OT, passive detection in the industrial environment so as not to interfere with the control systems, a behavioral baseline of the PLCs and the TOS, and correlation that identifies lateral movement before encryption, with coverage across all shifts.
Incident Response with port runbooks
The capability to contain in up to 1 hour with procedures that consider the physical safety of the equipment and operational continuity, forensics, eradication and orderly recovery, plus customs and yard reconciliation as part of the return.
Redundancy and reliable recovery
Segmented, immutable and tested backups, golden images of the critical systems, architectural redundancy at the right points and continuity plans with manual contingency procedures, so that a failure or an attack does not become the stop of the entire terminal.
Compliance and vulnerability management
A continuous program aligned with LGPD, ISO 27001 and, when applicable, PCI-DSS, with inventory and risk-based prioritization of vulnerabilities, compensating controls for legacy OT, recurring pentests and evidence organized for clients, shipowners and insurers.
Recommended plans for Ports and Terminals
24x7 SOC
A port operation runs in three shifts, and the interval between the initial compromise and the ransomware detonation is the defense window. The 24x7 SOC monitors IT and OT continuously and detects lateral movement before the attacker reaches the TOS and the network that commands cranes and gates.
See plan →Incident Response
When the terminal is hit, every hour down means demurrage, frozen customs clearance and a congested yard. Containment in up to 1 hour with runbooks that preserve the physical safety of the equipment turns a paralysis of days into an incident of hours, without paying ransom.
See plan →Compliance
LGPD, ISO 27001 and, when there is card handling, PCI-DSS have ceased to be optional: clients, shipowners and cyber-risk insurers require evidence. The compliance program organizes controls, incident notification and proof to sustain contracts and policies.
See plan →Pentest
Assuming that the IT/OT segmentation and the perimeter hold is risky in an environment where a failure costs the entire operation. The recurring pentest validates, in practice, whether an attacker can go from IT to TO, exposing the paths to close before a criminal finds them.
See plan →Frequently asked questions
Why can ransomware stop the physical movement of containers if it only encrypts data?
Because the physical operation depends entirely on the digital layer. The Terminal Operating System (TOS) orchestrates berth allocation, yard planning and the movement sequence, and sends orders to the systems that control cranes, RTGs and gates. If the TOS, its databases or the network that connects it to the equipment are encrypted or become unavailable, the crane does not receive the order, the truck does not pass through the gate and the movement stops. The encrypted data is the symptom; the physical stop is the consequence.
How does the attack reach the industrial network if it should be isolated?
In most incidents, the attacker does not directly break into the control system. They enter through corporate IT (phishing, exposed RDP, VPN without MFA, compromised supplier) and move laterally to the industrial network because the two networks are flat, share the same domain and the same administrative credentials. The decisive defense is real segmentation with a DMZ-OT and the zones-and-conduits model of IEC 62443, which makes compromising IT not grant access to TO.
Can OT monitoring interfere with the crane control systems?
That is why Decripte's OT monitoring is designed for the industrial environment, with predominantly passive detection, which observes traffic without injecting commands or probes that could disturb PLCs and control systems. The SOC establishes a baseline of the normal behavior of the equipment and the TOS and alerts on deviations, without interfering with the physical operation.
What is Decripte's containment SLA in a port incident?
Decripte's Incident Response works with a containment SLA of up to 1 hour. In a terminal, containment is executed with runbooks agreed in advance with the operation, so that isolating the threat does not cause an unsafe stop of equipment. The goal is to interrupt the propagation quickly, preserving physical safety and the possible continuity of the operation.
How can we ensure we will be able to recover without paying ransom?
Reliable recovery depends on segmented, immutable and offline or air-gapped backups, out of reach of the production credentials, plus golden images of the critical systems such as the TOS and the customs integration. Equally important is testing the restoration periodically, measuring the real recovery time. A backup the attacker can encrypt or delete does not protect; a tested and isolated backup is what takes away the criminal's negotiating power.
Which standards and regulations apply to a port's security?
The LGPD, overseen by the ANPD, governs the personal data that circulates in the operation and imposes duties of security and incident notification. ISO 27001 structures the information security management system, increasingly required by clients and auditors. PCI-DSS applies when there is processing of card data. For the industrial environment, IEC 62443 is the international security reference for automation and control systems.
How do you handle old OT systems that cannot be updated?
Many port industrial systems are legacy and do not tolerate updating at any moment, or simply no longer receive fixes. Decripte handles this with compensating controls: reinforced segmentation to isolate the vulnerable equipment, dedicated monitoring of that segment, rigid restriction of communications and planned maintenance windows. The vulnerability is managed by real risk to the business, not ignored nor handled in a way that stops the operation.
Where do we start if we do not yet have a structured security program?
With the free Threat Management diagnosis at decripte.com.br/intelligence-center, which gives an initial view of exposure and risk with no commitment. From it, Decripte helps prioritize: usually IT/TO segmentation, a 24x7 SOC and Incident Response come first, followed by reliable recovery and compliance. To structure the contracting, simply go to decripte.io/start or talk to the team through /contato.
Sector terms
- TOS (Terminal Operating System)
- The central system that orchestrates a port terminal's operation: berth allocation, yard planning and management, the container movement sequence and integration with cranes, gates and customs agencies. It is one of the most critical assets to protect, because its unavailability stops the physical operation.
- TO/OT (Operational Technology)
- The set of systems, controllers (PLCs) and equipment that command physical processes, such as cranes, transtainers (RTG/RMG), weighbridges and gates. Unlike traditional IT, it does not tolerate the classic isolate-and-shut-down playbook, because a wrong action can cause physical risk or an operational stop.
- IEC 62443
- A set of international standards for the security of industrial automation and control systems. It defines, among other concepts, the zones-and-conduits model, used to segment industrial networks into trust levels and rigorously control the communication between them, the basis of the separation between IT and TO in a terminal.
- DMZ-OT
- Industrial demilitarized zone: an intermediate network segment, controlled by firewalls, that sits between the corporate IT network and the industrial TO network. It ensures that no traffic crosses directly from IT to the control systems, serving as a barrier to prevent a corporate compromise from reaching the physical operation.
- Demurrage
- A fine or fee charged when a ship (or container) remains beyond the contracted time due to operational delays. In an incident that paralyzes the terminal, demurrage is one of the most immediate and visible costs, adding to the logistical rupture of the entire chain that depends on that port.
- Immutable backup
- A backup copy that, once written, cannot be altered or deleted for a defined period, even by administrative accounts. It protects against modern ransomware, which hunts and destroys accessible backups; combined with offline or air-gapped copies, it is what enables recovery without paying ransom.
Decripte protects and responds to incidents in ports and terminals.
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