Can Hackers Steal Oil?

In a recent report entitled, Cybersecurity for Oil and Gas Industries: How Hackers Can Steal Oil , ERPScan explain how businesses in said industry are potential targets for hackers. The attackers may be looking to cripple critical infrastructure in order to steal hydrocarbons or for the purposes of industrial sabotage. Upstream, midstream and downstream process management controls are all identified as being vulnerable to the nefarious machinations of cyber attackers.

The intricate nature of the oil and gas industry provides many opportunities for sabotage or theft along the supply chain – from the oil rig itself all the way to the petrol pump. Potential clients for such services include those looking to manipulate the commodities markets or the stocks of individual companies. Researchers at ERPScan were eager to stress that hackers may also upload malware to dynamically alter oil stock figures for Oil and Gas companies. Attackers may destroy equipment, stop production or cause serious physical harm (or death) to employees as a result of their interference.

Saudi Aramco is known to have been the victim of a targeted attack in 2012, 35,000 of its computers were infected with malware that destroyed data.The company claimed the attack was restricted to corporate office hardware, with production and exploration site hardware untouched by the breach.