US oil giant Halliburton disrupted by cyberattack
The company said it shut down some systems after an attacker gained access, but did not specify the scale of the disruption.
Halliburton, a US multinational and massive oil service company, was forced to shut down some of its systems after a cyberattack.
The company confirmed the disruption in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Halliburton said it discovered on 21 August that an “unauthorised third party” had gained access to some of its systems.
In response, Halliburton launched an internal investigation to “assess and remediate the unauthorised activity”. The oil giant did not specify how significant the cyberattack was or which systems were accessed.
“The Company’s response efforts included proactively taking certain systems offline to help protect them and notifying law enforcement,” Halliburton said in the SEC filing. “The Company’s ongoing investigation and response include restoration of its systems and assessment of materiality.”
Halliburton is one of the world’s largest energy companies and has roughly 48,000 employees in more than 70 countries. The oil giant is known for its connection to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, which saw Halliburton eventually pay $1.1bn in damages.
A US Department of Energy spokesperson told TechCrunch that there are “no indications” that the incident is impacting energy services.
The multinational did not specify the nature of the cyberattack in the SEC filing. Shutting down when a system is accessed by an intruder is a common tactic by companies to prevent cyberattackers from accessing further data or infiltrating more systems.
Earlier this month, US chipmaker Microchip Technologies was hit with a cyberattack that disrupted its systems and impacted its manufacturing capabilities. The company said it isolated the affected systems and shut down others in response to the attack.
A common tactic of cyberattackers is to disrupt ongoing activities or steal sensitive data, with the goal of pressuring a business into paying a ransom. Earlier this year, AT&T paid a hacking group $370,000 to delete the data of millions of customers following a massive data breach.
Cybersecurity experts warn about the danger and futility of paying ransoms to cybercriminals, but a recent report shows many Irish businesses are reserving funds to pay ransoms.
Published: 26-08-2024
