Coast Guard and FBI personnel boarded two commercial vessels bound for the United States in the Gulf of Mexico last month after indications that hackers had broken into their computer networks, the agencies said on Thursday (September 17, 2026). U.S.
Corey Ranslem, CEO of maritime security group Dryad Global, said that his firm had confirmed that one of the ships was the Liberian-flagged VL Prosperity. The vessel is currently anchored in waters around Galveston in Texas, according to LSEG and MarineTraffic ship tracking data. Liberia’s flag registry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. a ship-centered cyberattack is not that difficult to pull off, Mr Although dramatic in its effects.
The FBI said a joint Coast Guard-FBI team boarded the vessels after receiving “indications that the networks of both vessels were compromised. The Coast Guard, which referred only to the August 21 boarding, said that “foreign cyber actors” were involved but did not identify them. Ranslem said. “We are expecting these types of attacks to continue and will expand in the very near future,” he said.
