MCAD Maritime Cyber Attack Database
Year2014 |
MonthJanuary |
Reference number20140101 |
Impact areaVessel |
Incident locationLuanda |
Incident countryAngola |
Victim countryAngola |
Victim identityMT Kerala |
Victim TypeVessel |
MethodGoing Dark |
In January 2014, the ship MT Kerala was going dark in the countries Angola and Nigeria. Allegedly, pirates disabled the vessel’s AIS and other communication equipment so that the vessel could not be tracked from shore or satellite and painted over the identifying features of the vessel, including stack, name and IMO number. the aim of the pirates was fuel theft. The consequence of the attack was that $10 million of Cargo (oil) was stolen via ship-to-ship transfer. They undertook three separate ship-to-ship transfers of cargo amounting to the theft of approximately 12,271.5 tonnes of cargo. The hijacking of the Dynacom Tanker in an area where a known suspect vessel was operating was an embarrassment for the Angolan Navy, which floated the idea that the hijacking had been faked by the Kerala’s crew. During the hijacking, one crew member was stabbed by the pirates and others were beaten. After the incident they initiated an investigation towards the incident and gathered evidence.
