MCAD Maritime Cyber Attack Database
Year2018 |
MonthNovember |
Reference number20181103 |
Impact areaVessel |
Incident locationNampo |
Incident countryNorth Korea |
Victim countryNorth Korea |
Victim identityYuk Tung / Maika fishing vessel |
Victim TypeVessel |
MethodAIS Spoofing |
Attacker countryNorth Korea, China |
When the Yuk Tung vessel transmitted under a Panamanian flag in November 2018, using the vessel name Maika, it completely faked its AIS and changed its path and destination, following a questionable ship-to-ship transfer between the Yuk Tung and the Ocean Explorer in October. The vessel officially approved and registered a Comoros-flagged vessel, the Hika, at the time of the spoofing. The Hika and the Maika had the same International Maritime Organization (IMO) number. The two ships were sisters, built in the same year by the same constructor and with identical specs and profiles. The Hika, on the other hand, was over 7,000 kilometres away at the time. Meanwhile, the Maika (aka Yuk Tung) was impersonating the Hika to deceive authorities. Bad actors had clearly lifted the bar with this AIS spoofing scenario.
