The liquefied natural gas carrier Vivit Africa LNG, carrying cargo loaded at Louisiana's Cameron LNG terminal toward Italy, suffered a systems failure its crew reported as a suspected cyber attack while sailing east through the Mediterranean and Adriatic early in September, according to Bloomberg. The crew were suddenly unable to access some internal control systems, and the vessel idled off the Italian coast without discharging before sailing back toward Algeciras on Wednesday. The master reported a malfunction in the systems used to monitor cargo parameters, requiring company technicians; Italy's Coast Guard said it intervened solely for navigation safety and issued an urgent notice to mariners, and said the cause could not be identified. The crew reported the incident to the Korean Register, the technical and safety adviser to the South Korean-owned vessel, and investigations are ongoing with no indication of who was responsible. Trading giant Vitol confirmed it holds the ship on a long-term time charter but did not comment further, and Kongsberg Maritime, which supplied positioning, navigation and propulsion equipment used on the vessel, said it is aware of reports but that it is too early to draw conclusions on cause or security implications. The incident follows the late-August boarding of two oil and gas tankers off the US coast by the Coast Guard and FBI over potential cyberattacks, and US officials are now monitoring nearly 20 ships worldwide for such threats.

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