FUELLING SECURITY

AS THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR AND ITS SUPPLY CHAIN CONTINUE TO BUILD OUT DIGITALLY CONNECTED INFRASTRUCTURES, THEY FACE INCREASED CYBERSECURITY RISKS FROM BOTH EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ACTORS. INDUSTRY EXPERTS DISCUSS THE CYBERSECURITY CHALLENGES THAT OIL AND GAS PROFESSIONALS SHOULD BE AWARE OF.

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Several cyber breaches in the energy industry have hit the headlines, including tales of oil rigs riddled with malware or leaning heavily because they have become corrupted.

While some such stories have been distorted as they have spread online, there is no doubt that cybersecurity has become an increasing issue for the sector.

Indeed, a recent report from Deloitte, Protecting the Connected Barrels, stated that in 2016, energy was the second-most-targeted industry in term of cyber-attacks.

Everyone from state-sponsored attackers through to ransomware fraudsters is looking to exploit vulnerabilities in the oil and gas industry.

“Most of the attacks we’ve seen have been to control the networks. It depends on who’s running it. A lot of Iranian or North Korean attacks have been destructive – to wipe out hard drives,” says Jonathan Couch, senior vice president for strategy at the cybersecurity company ThreatQuotient.

Few people have observed the oil and gas cybersecurity landscape in the Middle East more closely than Marcus Josefsson, the MEA sales director for Nozomi Networks.

He says that in this region, in particular, cyber-attacks affecting the energy industry tend to be more targeted – and often state-sponsored – than is typically the case in other parts of the world. The Iranian-backed Shamoon attack on the Saudi Arabian oil and gas company Aramco is one prominent example.

There are many motivations other than cyber warfare, among them cyberespionage in the form of stealing field data, and financial gain, such as when ransomware is deployed.