The Daily View: From zombies to the multiverse

WHEN cyber attacks started topping the annual barometers of perceived risk at the beginning of this year, it was largely a question of volume that put the frighteners on CEOs.

Cyber attacks had been steadily evolving for years in terms of the technical sophistication and a steady stream of expert warnings had made clear the potential impact. But it was a very visible spike in the volume of attacks this year that finally gave it top billing in the long list of risks keeping global bosses awake at night.

There is a similar effect brewing in shipping right now when it comes to the identity frauds of ships being carried out at scale across the oceans.

Even casual readers of Lloyd’s List will be aware that sanctions have catalysed shadow fleet operators to develop ever more deceptive tactics to obfuscate sanctions-busting trades. But what’s changing now is the volume at which these practices are being deployed.

Lloyd’s List’s investigation this week, carried out in collaboration with SynMax Intelligence, found that the practice of “zombie ships” is becoming increasingly complex and widespread, while other forms of International Maritime Organization number fraud are quickly escalating to satisfy the sanctioned community’s demand for “clean” identities.

Sanctioned tankers are systematically hijacking ‘dead’ IMO numbers and live vessel IDs, while hiding behind fringe flags to keep trading under the appearance of other ships.

Some vessels have gone further, sailing under completely invented IMO numbers that do not exist in official registers because the flags they fly do not exist.

Individually, such cases were complex, and even well-resourced trackers of the shadow fleet’s evolving tactics were struggling to keep up with the zombie nightmare of a dawning dead fleet.

The problem now is that the volume of cases has escalated, and all combinations of deceptive practices are being used interchangeably.

The shadow fleet are now utilising everything, everywhere, all at once.

One-off cases of zombies were trackable, but the scale and scope of new combination approaches is growing rapidly and previous tactics to track the rise of the zombies are being tested.

Under the twin pressures of geopolitical upheaval and ever‑tighter sanctions, the game of maritime identity has moved to a level where traditional document-heavy compliance tools are in danger of being left behind.

This is no longer a niche item for the risk-list keeping executives awake at night — it requires attention at the top of every company exposed to the impact of the shadow fleet.

Richard Meade
Editor-in-chief, Lloyd’s List

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