![]() ![]() “Since oil and gas organizations are part of Canadian critical infrastructure, they are attractive targets for extortion because of the importance of these products and services to Canadians.” “We assess that ransomware is almost certainly the main threat to the supply of oil and gas to customers,” the agency wrote in a report. The CCCS said that is because of the high value of the industry's assets and “the degree of customer dependence on the industry's products,” adding that cybercriminals motivated by financial gain are the top cyber threats facing the Canadian oil and gas sector. However, cybersecurity experts have been warning for years that this country's energy industry is an attractive target for cybercriminals.Įarlier this year, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS) - part of the federal Communications Security Establishment, which provides the government of Canada with information technology security and foreign signals intelligence - warned that the oil and gas sector attracts “more than its share” of attention from cybercriminals. The leaked documents did not name a specific company, and the legitimacy of that claim remains unclear. In Canada, there hasn't been a publicized, large-scale, successful cyberattack on a domestic oil and gas company, though in April an apparent release of Pentagon documents onto social media sites contained a claim by Russian-backed hackers that they had successfully accessed Canada's natural gas infrastructure. ![]() fuel supply caused the rerouting of flights, panic buying and short-term price spikes. It was the largest cyberattack on oil infrastructure in the history of the United States, and forced the company to temporarily halt pipeline operations.Īlthough the pipeline was only shut down for a few days, the disruption in the U.S. In 2021, a ransomware attack successfully targeted the Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline system for refined oil products in the U.S. ![]() “I think that this actually could be the Canadian Colonial Pipeline, just in the sense that Suncor is such a large part of the economy.” “All of these things put together seem to suggest that there could be a sizable cyber incident that's taking place,” Paterson said, cautioning that much is still unknown about the current situation. Paterson, CEO of Vancouver-based cybersecurity company Plurilock Security Inc., said these public-facing issues could be “just the tip of the iceberg.” He added that as early as Friday, he was also hearing about Suncor employees being unable to log in to their own internal accounts. Car washes were also unavailable at some locations, the company said via social media. On Saturday, Petro-Canada's official Twitter account also issued a tweet saying that the company's Petro-Points app and website were temporarily unavailable.Īs of mid-day Monday, some of Suncor's Petro-Canada sites remained cash-only, and its app and Petro-Points login were unavailable. The confirmation followed days of public speculation, after social media users complained on Twitter over the weekend about an inability to use credit or debit cards at the company's chain of Petro-Canada gas stations in multiple major Canadian cities, as well as difficulties accessing car wash services. The Calgary-based oil company has provided no details about the attack or which parts of its operations were affected, saying simply in a news release issued late Sunday that it had “experienced a cybersecurity incident.” falling victim to a cyberattack may be the most significant cybersecurity breach of an oil and gas company thus far in Canadian history, experts say.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |