Cargo hackers hit trucking
Attackers are compromising trucking and freight firms to hijack real-world shipments, turning digital access into cargo theft. Reports show criminals breach logistics systems to manipulate dispatch data and intercept high-value loads, blurring the line between cyber intrusion and physical cargo loss. (gbhackers.com)
Cargo thieves are now stealing loads by hacking dispatch and broker systems first, then redirecting real trucks and real freight. (verisk.com) Verisk CargoNet said estimated cargo-theft losses reached nearly $725 million in 2025, up 60% from 2024, even as total supply-chain crime events stayed almost flat at 3,594. Confirmed cargo thefts rose 18% to 2,646, and the average loss per theft climbed 36% to $273,990. (verisk.com) A growing share of those thefts starts with deception instead of force: criminals use hacked email accounts, stolen credentials, spoofed phone calls and forged paperwork to pose as legitimate carriers or brokers and pick up freight meant for someone else. Truckstop said many of the 600-plus fraud cases it investigated involved spoofed emails, stolen credentials or falsified contact information. (truckstop.com) Overhaul said deceptive pickups were the fastest-growing cargo-theft method, rising 35% from 2024 to 2025 after earlier jumps of 57% from 2023 to 2024 and 91% from 2022 to 2023. Its 2025 report counted 2,576 cargo thefts in the United States, a 16% increase from 2024. (supplychainbrain.com) That shift has pulled cyber risk into day-to-day freight operations. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency lists transportation as critical infrastructure, and in May 2025 it joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency and allied agencies in warning that Russian military hackers had targeted logistics entities. (cisa.gov 1) (cisa.gov 2) The mechanics are simple: get into an email inbox or software account, watch how loads are assigned, then change the contact details or pickup instructions before the shipment moves. CISA, the National Security Agency, the FBI and state cyber officials said phishing remains a common first step in credential theft. (cisa.gov) High-value freight has become the main target. CargoNet said organized groups in 2025 increasingly focused on electronics, solar products, copper, energy drinks and other loads that can be resold quickly, helping push losses higher even when incident counts did not surge. (verisk.com) The geography is widening too. CargoNet said theft activity in 2025 spread beyond traditional hotspots, while Overhaul reported 645 cargo thefts in the United States in the third quarter alone, up 29% from a year earlier. (cargonet.com) (over-haul.com) The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines cargo theft as stealing goods moving in commerce, but the newer cases often look less like a warehouse break-in than an account takeover. The truck that arrives can be real, the paperwork can look valid, and the cargo can be gone before anyone realizes the dispatch record was changed. (fbi.gov) (truckstop.com) Freight firms have responded with more call-backs, carrier checks and tighter account controls, but the fraud is moving with the software. In trucking, a stolen password can now be as valuable to thieves as a crowbar. (truckstop.com)
