Offshore US oil, gas facilities at ‘significant’ risk of cyberattack, watchdog warns

Offshore U.S. oil and natural gas installations are “at significant risk” of cyber-attack, according to a federal watchdog that warned of a potential disaster on par with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout.

The Government Accountability Office found that offshore exploration equipment, including those critical to safety, are increasingly reliant on remote technology that’s vulnerable to cyber-attack. Efforts by the Interior Department arm charged with overseeing drilling safety have not “resulted in substantial action,” the GAO said in its report.

“This creates significant liability, given that a successful cyber-attack on such infrastructure could have potentially catastrophic effects,” according to the GAO. “The federal government has identified the oil and gas sector as a target of malicious state actors.”

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