Cruise Ships the next Big Fish for Pirates [WIRED]

There’s little doubt pirates have their sights set on seizing a ship full of tourists. With potentially thousands of hostages, the kidnappers could demand an enormous ransom, far greater than the $1 million they might get for a container ship.

What’s unclear is how pirates would manage to control a giant cruise ship with hundreds and hundreds of passengers and crew aboard. - WIRED

NVDL: This looks like it is going to get ugly. I predict that this sort of vigilante-sim is going to spread, with unique banditry spawning everywhere. South Africa has its own piracy. Throwing rocks on highways, killing hte occupants and then stealing the spoils.

clipped from blog.wired.com Two weeks ago, an Australian cruise ship passing through the Gulf of Aden found itself surrounded by more as much as thirty small boats. They were Somali pirates, according to initial reports, operating in the biggest coordinated group seen so far. The MV Athena opened up her throttles and escaped unharmed. Soon after the ship made port, however, the story began to change. There weren’t any pirates, a company official claimed, just tuna fishermen. So it’s possible that the Athena really was targeted by a pirate swarm. If so, the incident reflects a worrying trend.