About three months ago, a U.S. shipping broker saw nearly a dozen loads of copper and electronics bound for artificial intelligence data centres vanish in transit.
The theft cost it nearly US$5 million, estimates Keith Lewis, who was working with the company.
“The bad guys are good at marketing,” said Lewis, head of operations at risk-assessment firm Verisk CargoNet.
“It’s so much more strategic now, so much more targeted … They know what’s hot and they know what’s selling.”
The incident highlighted an alarming trend: the AI infrastructure boom is driving a dramatic surge in cargo theft, leaving companies and ultimately consumers to pick up the tab. What’s more, crooks are increasingly deploying AI to find and steal those goods in a digitally savvy twist that brings the breach full circle….