Thursday, 13 August 2026

Russian strike hits Ukraine's Black Sea grain terminals, straining maritime supply chains

A Russian strike has hit major grain export terminals at a Ukrainian Black Sea port. It revives concern about the safety of maritime infrastructure in one of the world's most contested shipping corridors. The attack continues a pattern of heavier targeting of port and energy infrastructure as the war goes on. The effects reach global grain and fertiliser flows, freight insurance rates and the routes vessels take. If you trade in the Black Sea, ship through or near the corridor, or rely on Ukrainian agricultural exports, expect war-risk conditions to stay volatile rather than settle into a predictable pattern. Underwriters are likely to reassess premiums and transit corridors. Security and procurement teams should review current war-risk cover, check AIS tracking and vessel diversion procedures with logistics partners, and keep contingency plans for supply disruption up to date. Brief any executives or staff with planned travel near the region on the higher threat level before they leave. Monitoring of the corridor needs to be continuous, not a one-off assessment.

Our Advisory & Intelligence team tracks Black Sea shipping and supply-chain risk for clients who trade in or through the region.

Houthi threats raise questions over Saudi Arabian shipping security

Renewed Houthi activity raises the question of whether the group's disruption of Red Sea shipping could turn into direct pressure on Saudi Arabian maritime traffic. That would widen a threat that has already pushed many carriers onto longer, costlier routes around the Cape of Good Hope. Even the possibility of a wider campaign against Gulf shipping lanes matters well beyond the region. Freight costs, delivery times and insurance terms all move with the rerouting decisions of the major carriers. If your goods pass through the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb or the Gulf, stress-test your supply chain now instead of assuming today's routing will hold. Security and logistics leads should establish which vessels and cargoes touch the affected waters, and stay in close contact with freight forwarders on alternative routes. Check that war-risk and cargo insurance terms match the current threat. Track Houthi statements and attack patterns continuously, because an assessment made only after an incident is much harder to defend.

Ransomware strikes Colombia's Justice Ministry days before presidential transition

A ransomware attack has hit Colombia's Justice Ministry in the days just before a presidential transition. The timing fits a pattern: threat actors increasingly go after governments and institutions at moments of political weakness, when attention, staffing and decision-making are stretched. The disruption to judicial and administrative systems is only the first effect. Ransomware operators do not stick to opportunistic financial targets. They deliberately use periods of institutional change to maximise pressure and bargaining power. If your organisation has operations, legal proceedings or data dependencies tied to Colombian government systems, check your exposure to knock-on disruption such as delayed filings, compromised records or slower responses from regulators. The wider lesson applies to any change of leadership, in government or in a company. Treat it as a period of higher cyber risk and temporarily step up monitoring, incident response readiness and the review of third-party and vendor risk.

Our Cyber Security practice helps organisations protect leadership and governance transitions against opportunistic and targeted ransomware.

Belgium's eID authentication system exposed citizen accounts to remote code execution risk

A vulnerability in Belgium's eID authentication infrastructure has been shown to expose citizen accounts to remote code execution. It hits the core identity layer behind access to government services, banking and a growing number of private-sector login flows built on national digital ID. Flaws like this carry extra weight because eID systems act as a trust anchor. A compromise does not stay inside one application. It can spread to every service that relies on that identity check for authentication or KYC. If your organisation in Belgium or elsewhere in the EU uses national eID for onboarding, client verification or employee login, confirm patch status with your vendors today. Review your fallback authentication procedures in case eID services are temporarily restricted. There is also a wider EU compliance point. As digital identity becomes part of regulated sectors under frameworks like eIDAS, security failures in national ID infrastructure turn more and more directly into compliance and liability exposure for companies. They are no longer purely a government IT problem.

Our Cyber Security team can assess how an identity-layer flaw like this affects your authentication and KYC processes.

WWII-era explosive detonates near Plopsaland theme park in the Ardennes, three injured

A Second World War-era explosive has detonated near the Plopsaland theme park in the Belgian Ardennes, injuring three people. Decades after the war, unexploded ordnance is still a real physical security risk across the former battlefields of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Land near forests, farms and construction sites in these areas keeps turning up munitions. Incidents can happen without warning, including at or near places that draw large crowds, such as theme parks, festival grounds and outdoor event venues. If you run a venue or host events in these regions, make sure your site risk assessment considers historical ordnance where relevant. Your emergency plan should include a clear procedure for a suspected explosive find, and staff should know to report a suspicious object and leave it where it is. Agree contacts with local authorities and the explosive ordnance disposal service in advance, so that nothing has to be improvised after an incident.

Trial opens over attack on D66 party office as The Hague holds silent march

A trial has opened over an attack on the offices of the D66 political party, at the same time as a silent march in The Hague. Together they keep political violence, and the security of party and public-institution buildings, high on the domestic risk agenda. In a more polarised climate, political offices and the staff and visitors who use them are increasingly treated as targets. Incidents like this tend to bring follow-on risk: copycat threats, protests and extra public attention around the court case itself. If you are responsible for political, government or other high-profile institutional premises in the Netherlands, treat court dates and commemorations linked to such incidents as periods that call for sharper situational awareness. In practice that means reviewing access control, adding visible or discreet guarding where it fits, and agreeing planned gatherings with local police. Brief staff at any politically significant building on how to report suspicious activity and how to calm a confrontational visitor during sensitive periods.

We provide manned guarding and access control for political, government and institutional premises when the risk around them goes up.

Spanish and Dutch police dismantle cocaine trafficking network, five arrested including two Dutch nationals

A joint Spanish-Dutch police operation has taken down a cocaine trafficking network. Five people were arrested, two of them Dutch nationals. It is the latest case in a steady pattern of Netherlands-linked crime groups running cross-border logistics for cocaine that enters Europe through Iberian and other southern European ports. Networks like these regularly cross paths with legitimate logistics, freight and port-side businesses. They do it by infiltrating directly, by putting pressure on staff, or by hiding inside legitimate shipments. If you run logistics, freight forwarding or port-side facilities with any link to Iberian trade or the Rotterdam-Antwerp routes, keep a close eye on personnel vetting, cargo integrity checks and insider-threat awareness. Security teams should read each new cross-border enforcement action as a sign that criminal logistics networks are still active and adapting. Feed that into your regular supply chain integrity and personnel security reviews, instead of treating each bust as a one-off.

Community service sentence for Amersfoort man over racist and inflammatory online posts

A court has sentenced a man from Amersfoort to community service for spreading racist and inflammatory texts. It is a domestic case, but it reflects a wider trend that security teams should follow. Online incitement is increasingly linked to real-world harassment and targeted threats, and in more serious cases to violence against the people or organisations named or implicated in the material. This matters most for security and communications teams who look after executives or spokespeople, or whose organisation has a public profile on sensitive social or political topics. Keep active watch on online threats and incitement that concern your organisation. Have a clear route for escalating from online monitoring to physical protection when the situation calls for it. Agree reporting thresholds with the police in advance, and train the right staff to spot the early signs of growing hostility online. Both steps cost little and lower the chance that an online threat becomes a physical incident.

Our Training & Resilience programmes teach staff to spot the early signs of an online threat and escalate them before anything physical happens.