The parallels with the "Daemon" in Daniel Suarez' novel are scary.
small spoiler ahead
This Daemon is an AI that keeps data of big companies hostage - it will destroy all that company's data if the company does not pay protection money, or if the company involves law enforcement.
Because a lot of companies in the novel don't stick to the AI's rules, these companies go down with the exact same symptoms as Maersk is now having:
- unable to do business
- unclear what happened
- declining stock prices