The International Association of Ports and Harbors, a global organization representing ports worldwide that works with the United Nations, has released an 84-page document outlining "IAPH Cybersecurity Guidelines for Ports and Port Facilities."

According to the Executive Summary of the document, "The risk of a cyber-attack has become the top risk for port authorities and the wider port community.

At the end of August, the Boston Public Library experienced a cyber attack which took caused a system-wide outage throughout the city's branches as well as the central branch in Copley Square.

"Affected systems were taken offline immediately, and proactive steps were taken to isolate the problem and shutdown network communication," the library said in a statement on their website.

Howard University, located in Washington D.C., was forced to cancel classes the day after Labor Day as the school became the latest institute of higher learning to face a ransomware attack. During the first week of the month, Howard's information technology department intentionally shut down the school's network after detecting what they called "unusual activity.