While boats off the coasts of South America and the Mediterranean Sea are still molested by pirates, the advent of the United States Coast Guard has nearly eradicated piracy in American waters, and it is also much reduced in the Caribbean Sea from days of yore.

Modern pirates now favour small boats and take advantage of the small crew numbers on modern cargo vessels. Cargo ships who must slow their speed to navigate narrow straits such as the Suez Canal, the Panama canal and the Straits of Malacca making them vulnerable to be overtaken and boarded by small motorboats. Small ships are also capable of disguising themselves as fishing vessels or cargo vessels when not carrying out piracy, in order to avoid or deceive inspections.

Modern pirates also use a great deal of technology. It has been reported that crimes of piracy have involved the use of mobile phones, modern speedboats, and AK-47's. There is also speculation that modern pirates are involved with eavesdropping on satellite communication networks such as Inmarsat to determine cargo and the degree of risk involved with an operation.. In most cases, modern pirates are not interested in the cargo and are mainly interested in taking the personal belongings of the crew and the contents of the ship's safe, which might contain large amounts of cash needed to pay payroll and port fees. In some cases, the pirates force the crew off the ship and sail the ship to a port, where it is repainted and given a new identity through false papers.

Seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant problem and is on the rise (with estimated worldwide losses of $13 to $16 billion USD per year).

It has increased in areas such as South and Southeast Asia (the South China Sea), parts of South America, and the south of the Red Sea and off the Horn of Africa with an average of 405 incidents per year during 2000-2003, compared to an average of just 233 during 1995-1999 . Between 1995 and 2003, it is estimated that more than 2,500 vessel crew members were held hostage, while nearly 1,000 have been reported injured, killed, or missing due to piracy incidents. The full dimensions of the problem may be much broader, however, as many industry experts have suggested that acts of piracy are highly underreported. Piracy attacks appear to be most prevalent in countries with emerging economies, numerous estuaries and offshore islands, large stretches of remote coastal areas, and ongoing political insurgencies.

More than 60 percent of piracy incidents reported in 2003 occurred in just five areas: Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Malacca Straits, and India––with Indonesia accounting for more than a quarter of all incidents. At a more aggregate level, vessels appear to be more vulnerable to piracy in Africa and Asia than in other regions of the world. Brazilian pirates take advantage of the fact that Brazil does not have the Coast Guard. In the Far East piracy is controlled by organized crime and pirates kidnap the whole ships and cargo.

The Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) stated in 2004 that most pirate attacks in that year occurred in Indonesian waters (70 of 251 reported attacks). Of these attacks, a majority occurred in the Straits of Malacca. They also stated that of the attacks in 2004, oil and gas tankers and bulk carriers were the most popular targets with 67 attacks on tankers and 52 on bulk carriers.