Nautilus Minerals Inc and Marine Assets Corporation (MAC) have fallen victims to a cyber attack by an unknown third party, who took USD 10 million worth vessel deposit from what was believed to be MAC’s account, Nautilus said.
The amount was intended to serve as part of a charterer’s guarantee worth USD 18 million for a newbuild vessel.
The vessel, being built by Fujian Mawei Shipbuilding in China, is to be first deployed for use at the Nauitlus’ Solwara 1 Project slated for 2018 that involves seafloor mining.
Nautilus said that it has paid the deposit to a bank account which it believed to be MAC’s, but which MAC has advised was not its account.
“The matter was promptly referred to the police authorities in the relevant jurisdictions and an investigation is underway,” Nautilus said.
“Both MAC and ourselves are co-operating with each other and the authorities to facilitate the timely resolution of the investigations.”
Nautilus added that it has engaged a cyber security firm to ensure the ongoing security of its and MAC’s networks and to investigate the source of the cyber attack.