Maritime organisations are being alerted by cybersecurity firms to what appears to be a massive data breach which could lead to a large scale data breach.

Up to 38 maritime organisations are thought to be at risk, ranging from shipping lines and ports to terminal operators and agencies.

A recently emerged data-theft extortion operation called n0n Group posted the names of the 38 organisations earlier this week, giving them one week to pay millions in ransom or have their data made public.

Included in the list of companies are Ocean Network Express, T.S. Lines, CULines and ports and terminals as wide-ranging as South Korea, India, Spain, Brazil, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

The group is relatively new, emerging in September and having hit a total of 21 organistions previously ranging from investment firms, retail, education, pharmaceutical companies and telecommunications.

None of the companies that were listed have publicly confirmed the attack but it is thought the companies have until October 19 to make ransom payments with Bitcoin or their data will be published.

It is believed that the breach likely came out of one shared system, with the group appearing to avoid traditional ransomware development and instead manipulate a victim’s data with administration tools.

The breach appears to involve a narrow group of categories including EDI messages, manifests, gate and equipment interchange records, terminal system configuration, release documents and deployment material.

The amount being demanded in ransom amounts varies by the amount of data the group claims to have. The range is thought to be between $2.4 million and $14 million, although the n0n has indicated a willingness to negotiate with at least some of the organisations.