Cyber attacks on transportation companies are surging, with freight fraud and supply chain disruptions costing the industry billions annually. In May 2025, South African Airways suffered a significant cyber incident that impacted their website, mobile app, and internal operational systems, causing them to go offline.

While SAA's rapid response restored functionality within hours, the attack highlights how quickly cybercriminals can paralyze critical transportation infrastructure. Attacks like these don't require sophisticated malware. Instead, cybercriminals use social engineering through phishing emails to pose as logistics partners, customs officials, or freight forwarders to gain access to shipping manifests, cargo data, and route information. A single compromised email account can redirect valuable shipments, manipulate customs documentation, and disrupt entire logistics networks.

For transportation companies processing millions of shipping documents daily through email channels, AI-powered email security has become essential. In this article, we outline how behavioral AI protects transportation operations from email-driven threats.

Email security is critical in transportation due to its role in global supply chains, regulatory compliance, and infrastructure protection. As the backbone of international commerce, transportation is a prime target for sophisticated attacks. Email compromise can redirect high-value cargo, alter pickup schedules, or manipulate customs documentation, enabling smuggling and creating compliance risks.

The sector’s interconnected nature magnifies impact: port authorities, shipping lines, freight forwarders, and customs brokers all rely on email to coordinate logistics. A single compromise can cascade through supply chains, disrupting manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.

Supply chain attacks in transportation are especially damaging because they exploit trusted relationships and time-sensitive workflows. When attackers impersonate legitimate partners, the resulting cargo theft and operational disruption often surpass direct financial losses.

Transportation organizations present concentrated attack opportunities that cybercriminals systematically exploit through sophisticated email campaigns. The combination of high-value cargo data, complex operational networks, and time-sensitive communications creates optimal conditions for successful attacks.

Transportation companies handle sensitive data on high-value cargo such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, and luxury goods, items that fetch premium prices on black markets. Shipping manifests disclose cargo values, pickup points, and delivery schedules, providing attackers with the intelligence needed for targeted theft.

Financial transactions often occur over email as companies manage freight payments, customs duties, and fuel purchases. These workflows present opportunities for cybercriminals to divert significant funds through fraudulent banking details or manipulated invoices.

Transportation operations rely on vast networks of port authorities, customs brokers, freight forwarders, trucking companies, and warehouse operators. Each partnership involves routine email communication that attackers can exploit to insert fraudulent instructions.

This interconnected ecosystem amplifies risk, as compromised freight forwarders can reroute cargo and hijacked customs brokers can alter documentation. Threat actors increasingly seek out the weakest security links in transportation networks to gain a foothold for larger-scale attacks.

Transportation environments process thousands of shipping orders, customs declarations, and route updates daily. This communication volume creates noise that obscures anomalous requests, particularly during peak shipping seasons when vigilance typically decreases.

Just-in-time logistics and tight delivery schedules create environments where urgency reduces security scrutiny. Attackers deliberately exploit these operational pressures, knowing that staff face pressure to process communications quickly to maintain shipping schedules and meet customer commitments.

Transportation companies operate critical infrastructure systems, including ports, airports, and rail networks, that attackers target for broader economic disruption. Email compromise can provide access to operational technology systems controlling cargo handling equipment and traffic management systems.

Regulatory requirements under customs authorities and transportation security agencies create compliance vulnerabilities when email security fails. Data breaches trigger mandatory notifications, while operational disruptions can result in security reviews and operational restrictions.

Static, rule-based email filters cannot adapt to the sophisticated, context-aware threats that systematically target transportation operations. These legacy systems evaluate technical indicators while missing the operational context that characterizes modern attack methods.

Traditional secure email gateways scan for malware signatures and known malicious domains, but they often miss sophisticated vendor email compromise attempts. When attackers spoof legitimate logistics partners requesting shipping instruction changes, gateway systems often see technically clean messages and approve delivery.

Modern business email compromise attacks frequently operate within legitimate conversation threads, making detection extremely difficult for traditional systems. Attackers monitor ongoing shipping discussions for weeks before injecting fraudulent cargo redirections that appear entirely legitimate within established communication patterns.

AI transforms transportation email security by learning operational patterns, implementing behavioral analysis, and automatically responding to sophisticated attacks. The following seven capabilities strengthen defenses while maintaining operational efficiency during peak shipping periods:

Behavioral AI maps normal communication patterns in transportation operations, including shipment coordination, cargo documentation, and routing procedures. Sudden changes such as altered delivery destinations or unusual documentation requests trigger immediate verification.
This approach is vital since many attacks lack the links or attachments detected by signature-based filters. Recent cargo theft cases show how attackers exploit legitimate shipping conversations to redirect freight and evade traditional security measures.

Transportation companies handle sensitive cargo manifests, bills of lading, and customs declarations, which are the prime targets for attackers seeking to commit freight fraud. AI analyzes historical shipping patterns to verify cargo values, routing instructions, and the authenticity of documentation before authorizing shipments.

Machine learning models flag irregular cargo descriptions, unexpected destination changes, and suspicious documentation alterations that may signal smuggling or freight diversion attempts. This proactive approach stops minor security gaps from escalating into significant incidents.

AI continuously assesses third-party logistics providers by analyzing communication history, shipping performance metrics, and global threat intelligence. If a trusted freight forwarder’s account is compromised and begins issuing altered routing instructions, the system generates alerts and blocks those communications from reaching operations teams.

This ongoing monitoring is critical for transportation companies that work with extensive vendor networks, including customs brokers, trucking firms, and warehouse operators, each of which presents potential attack vectors. The system maintains up-to-date risk profiles for every logistics relationship.

High-volume transportation environments often produce more security alerts than lean teams can manage effectively. AI clusters related security events, links shipping anomalies to potential email threats, and generates concise investigation summaries for rapid analyst assessment.

In cases of coordinated attacks impacting multiple shipping lanes, the system automatically quarantines related communications and notifies the affected partners, eliminating the need for manual intervention. This automation reduces containment time from hours to minutes, which is a critical advantage when preventing cargo diversions before shipments reach fraudulent destinations.

Strict email authentication can block cargo instruction spoofing, but enforcing consistent policies across multiple logistics partners often risks disrupting legitimate operations. AI systems catalog authorized shipping coordinators, detect authentication gaps, and fine-tune policies to stop freight fraud while ensuring uninterrupted cargo movement.

Automated authentication management streamlines the complex demands of international shipping and preserves operational efficiency, especially during peak seasons, when reliable communication is critical to delivery performance.

Generic awareness programs often fall short for transportation workers who face varying schedules and constant operational demands. AI-driven analysis of individual user behaviors enables delivery of targeted training: port operators practice detecting fraudulent cargo instructions, while customs coordinators learn to identify attempts at documentation manipulation.

Mobile-optimized and role-specific, this training keeps workers engaged without disrupting shift operations. Consistent exposure to transportation-focused threat simulations significantly reduces vulnerability to freight fraud attempts.

Transportation companies operate across multiple ports, terminals, and distribution centers, each with distinct security protocols. AI technology establishes baseline communication patterns for every location, enabling rapid identification of compromised accounts or unusual operational requests.

Through continuous monitoring of transportation networks, the system automatically quarantines suspicious messages, alerts affected terminals, and safeguards operational continuity. This coordinated approach prevents isolated security incidents from spreading and disrupting entire shipping operations.

Transportation organizations like AC Transit face sophisticated email threats that target their operational communications and partner networks. Abnormal's behavioral AI platform learns normal communication patterns across transit operations, analyzing thousands of signals to detect anomalies indicating account takeover attempts or business email compromise (BEC).

The API-based solution integrates seamlessly with existing systems without disrupting critical operations. Beyond threat detection, Abnormal's platform delivers operational efficiency gains by filtering time-consuming graymail messages and automatically remediating compromised accounts while maintaining detailed audit trails for regulatory compliance requirements.

AC Transit serves over 200,000 customers across California's East Bay. When the organization faced active account takeover attacks, Abnormal's platform immediately identified and stopped these threats while providing superior detection capabilities against advanced attacks like BEC and spear phishing targeting executives and board members.

The Email Productivity add-on saved AC Transit more than 120 employee hours monthly by filtering graymail messages that previously consumed executive time. This allows leadership to focus on serving transit customers while maintaining partner trust and operational security, which is critical for agencies coordinating with federal partners and regional transportation networks.

Interested in discovering how Abnormal can secure your transportation communications? Explore our customer stories and request a demo to see transit-focused solutions.