What happened
Cybercriminals are increasingly using remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools to infiltrate the trucking and freight sector. According to research by Proofpoint, threat actors have compromised load-board brokerage accounts and courier companies, then used platforms such as ScreenConnect, SimpleHelp, PDQ Connect, Fleetdeck, N-able, and LogMeIn Resolve to gain system access.
Once inside, attackers bid on legitimate shipments and divert or covertly take possession of cargo, essentially turning cyber access into physical theft.
Who is affected
The campaign is broad in scope, targeting small family-owned carriers as well as larger transport firms. The threat actor is opportunistic and targets individuals who respond to fake freight listings.
Because cargo theft is already estimated to be around $35 billion annually, this cyber-enabled vector poses a significant financial and operational risk for supply chain organisations.
Why CISOs should care
- The attack vector bridges IT and OT (physical logistics) domains: what begins as an RMM compromise transitions into a real-world material loss.
- Traditional cyber-defense frameworks may overlook logistics load boards, brokerage platforms, or third-party vendor systems. Yet, these are now critical ingress points.
- For CISOs in organisations that either operate or depend on freight/logistics/supply-chain linkages, this represents a novel threat dimension: disruption, reputational damage, and escalation into physical asset theft.
- More broadly, it signals that cyber risk isn’t just data loss or downtime. It can manifest as tangible goods loss, insurance impacts, and erosion of supplier trust.
3 Practical actions
- Inventory and segment remote-access tooling: Ensure your IT environment tracks all RMM tools (approved or otherwise). Lock down installation rights so that only authorised, vetted remote-management solutions are used.
- Vet supply-chain and load-board vendors: Review the security posture of your freight-brokerage and carrier partners. Validate that they monitor for unusual load postings and phishing attempts, and enforce multifactor authentication and least-privilege access for their systems.
- Apply behavioral monitoring and anomaly detection: Deploy monitoring to detect atypical access patterns (e.g., new RMM tool installations, logins from unusual IP addresses, new bids placed via load-board accounts). Cross-correlate these with logistics workflows to ensure that cyber alerts trigger a review of supply-chain risk.