Cargo theft in your grandfather’s day involved bolt cutters and a fast getaway truck. Today’s cargo theft? Hackers slip through your TMS like ghosts, using your own login credentials against you.
CargoNet counted 3,625 theft incidents in 2024 alone—each averaging $202,364 in losses. Q2 2025 already topped 884 more cases. And according to the CrowdStrike 2025 Threat Hunting Report, cloud intrusions jumped 136% while 81% of attacks don’t even employ malware.
Thieves no longer need viruses when they can hijack legitimate admin accounts virtually handed to them through phishing emails or weak passwords. Modern thieves can spoof drivers, create phantom pickups, and redirect loads while you are still focused on checking door seals.
Cargo theft has evolved. You and your defenses better catch up.
Digitization was supposed to make things easier. Instead, it has made criminals smarter. Your security tools are trying, but they are playing defense after someone is already inside. Even well-designed platforms can’t protect you when the real problem starts at login.
Remember: Bad guys are always early adopters of technology and continually develop creative ways to steal cargo. At best, current cargo theft management services only react to mitigate cargo theft by Whack-a-Mole countermeasures.
Just when you thought the situation was bad enough, enter artificial intelligence. These tools empower bad actors to levels no current cargo theft mitigation service or law enforcement agency has ever faced. And the AI revolution is certain to produce highly empowered thieves, who will continue to find new ways to steal cargo.
Here’s what matters: stopping them at the gate, before they ever become your “trusted” user.
Key Insight 1 — Thieves Already Mastered the Tech You Just Bought
Criminal rings run deepfakes, forge synthetic identities, and jam GPS signals while you are still rolling out that new tracking app. They phish your dispatchers, hop between your disconnected systems, and exploit every gap where one tool hands data to another. Loose digitization basically makes cargo theft easier. In essence, you are often broadcasting shipment details, skipping identity verification, and losing visibility at every custody transfer.
Smart operators fight back by building identity checks and chain-of-custody controls directly into their TMS workflows. Every handoff is verified. Every access point is continuously monitored. We at EKA Solutions embed these safeguards directly into our Omni-TMS™ and your routine operations, so security happens automatically while your team focuses on your mission: handling freight.
Key Insight 2 — Your TMS Connects to Everyone Else’s Infrastructure
Forget breaking into trucks. Criminals now log into your TMS, change pickup instructions, and accept loads through stolen API credentials.
But the real problem? Your TMS talks to outside systems like Highway, Samsara, carrier networks, and various broker platforms. Every integration you added for efficiency became another door criminals can walk through. When Highway gets compromised, thieves get into your system. When you connect to that small carrier’s network, you inherit its security problems too.
So, lock down every workflow layer. Enforce least-privilege access, require MFA on all accounts, rotate API keys monthly, and monitor every admin action inside your TMS. If you pay attention, suspicious behavior will trigger alerts before cargo theft happens, not after.
That’s where EKA’s Unified Cloud Platform comes into play by eliminating those vulnerable handoff points between disconnected tools. One secure system means thieves can’t exploit the gaps between your dispatch software, tracking apps, and billing platforms.
Key Insight 3 — Phone Calls and Fake Emails Still Beat Your Best Security
One smooth-talking thief resets your dispatcher’s MFA over the phone. Another sends a spoofed email that looks exactly like your biggest broker’s template. Load gone. Just like that.
Highway’s Q2 2025 fraud index caught an amazing 495,267 bogus emails and flagged 42,421 suspicious phone numbers. And the first half of 2025 alone blocked 847,401 attempts, almost matching all of 2024’s fraud volume.
Your best bet is to stop cargo theft at the communication layer. Require manager approval for password resets and pickup changes. Limit data visibility based on actual job roles. Accurately pre-verify every carrier identity before they even see available loads.
Here at EKA, we’re doing our part to turn the tide by baking Highway’s carrier verification directly into Omni-TMS workflows. Fraudsters get blocked before they reach your freight board, not after they have already accepted a tender.
Key Insight 4 — Ransomware Gangs Delete Your Backups, Then Steal Your Freight
Ransomware gangs learned something truckers should know: if you kill the backups, everything falls apart. They infiltrate your backup servers and old gate cameras before encrypting your main systems. And while you panic to restore operations, cargo theft rings exploit the mayhem.
After all, nobody notices missing trailers when everyone is locked out of their screens.
That is why you need to build unbreakable, automatic, and efficient recovery plans. Store backups offline where hackers can’t touch them, monitor backup systems just like you monitor freight, and keep TMS audit trails running independently so you track custody even during attacks.
EKA’s WAMS (Workflow Activity & Monitoring System) flags custody breaks instantly, like missed scans, document mismatches, and late arrivals. You spot problems while trucks still sit in your yard, not after they have driven away.
Key Insight 5 — Your Other Systems Are the Problem
Your TMS might be locked down, but what about everything else?
Thieves can slip through that ancient VPN, or compromise a driver’s tablet, then use real credentials to hijack loads. No malware needed. CrowdStrike found 81% of intrusions work this way because attackers just log in and look like they belong. Your antivirus tools sit there useless while thieves bounce between your router, load board, and tracking apps, exploiting every gap where systems don’t talk to each other.
The fix? Connect everything. Network logs, cloud actions, TMS events, driver verifications, pickup codes, equipment checks. One monitoring stream instead of twenty disconnected tools. EKA’s Ecosystem puts all of these insights on one screen, and because thieves can’t exploit gaps that don’t exist. Security must be automatic, built into workflows, not just another “checklist” drivers skip when running late.
How to Fix the Root Cause: Train Your People, Secure Your Gates, Share the Risk
You added twenty different security tools last year. Cargo theft still went up. Here is why: your exhausted dispatcher just clicked a phishing link, your driver handed freight to someone with fake but seemingly authentic credentials, and criminals adapted to your new defenses before you finished implementing them. The real fix starts with people, not software.
- Train Constantly: Your employees face nonstop pressure and tight deadlines. That makes them perfect phishing targets. Run weekly security scenarios. Show them real theft attempts. Make them paranoid about every email, every pickup request, every “urgent” change. Because one careless tired click costs you $200,000.
- Harden Your TMS Like a Vault: Your system controls millions in freight movement. Criminals know this. Lock down every access point, monitor every action, and assume someone is always trying to get in. Your TMS holds the keys to your entire operation.
- Build Fortress-Level Gate Security: The only guaranteed way to stop cargo theft? Stop thieves at the physical gate. Maritime ports have figured this out. Every terminal and warehouse needs the same bulletproof authentication before anyone touches freight. One-time codes, photo verification, equipment matching. No exceptions.
- Make Shippers Share the Risk: Here is the truth nobody wants to admit: this problem only gets solved when shippers share liability for theft. When they have skin in the game, suddenly those security requirements get enforced and that gate security becomes non-negotiable. Because criminals will always adapt faster than your countermeasures unless everyone pays when theft happens.
Time to Make Cargo Theft Someone Else’s Problem
You got into trucking to move freight, not to play cat-and-mouse with criminals who have watched too many hacker movies. Yet here you are, dealing with thieves who ghost through your systems like they own the place, spoofing drivers over lunch and rerouting loads while you are still checking tire pressure. They have traded bolt cutters for stolen passwords, crowbars for cloned credentials, and your disconnected tools practically roll out the red carpet for them.
We built EKA’s Omni-TMS to stop good operators from losing loads to preventable theft. Real-time visibility catches problems as they happen, predictive alerts flag them before they do, and exception management means you only see what actually matters. Highway, MCP, and every other theft prevention service you already use plugs straight in, no extra logins needed. It runs on Google Cloud Platform because it is the best at keeping criminals out, period. And while everyone else talks about better security, we are actually building it at terminals and warehouses—gate systems that connect to your TMS and verify drivers before freight ever moves. It is simple: the most effective way to stop cargo theft is to stop thieves at the gate before they become your problem.
Contact our team and see how we turn criminals from your theft problem into their failed login attempt.