Oil Industry Warns of Cyber-Attacks

Cyber-attacks against the oil industry may threaten lives, the environment, and economic interests, according Ludolf Luehmann, IT manager for Shell.
Oil Industry Warns of Cyber-Attacks
12/12/2011
Updated:
3/15/2012

Cyber-attacks against the oil industry may threaten lives, the environment, and economic interests, according Ludolf Luehmann, IT manager for Shell.

Luehmann, while speaking at the World Petroleum Conference in Doha, Qatar, this past week, said that the company has been suffering repeated IT attacks lately, both of commercial and criminal intent, the BBC reports. 

The dangers of a third party gaining actual control over physical oil drilling machinery are considerable, according to Luehmann.

“It will cost lives and it will cost production, it will cost money, cause fires, and cause loss of containment, environmental damage—huge, huge damage,” he said

A famous example of how cyber-attacks have been moving into the physical realm is the malware Stuxnet, which was detected in 2009. It is suspected of being created by a government, due to its complexity, and targeted industrial control software and entered companies’ internal networks by infecting USB keys. The virus was able to physically destroy centrifuges from Iran’s nuclear enrichment programs.

This year, a malware named Duqu has been gathering intelligence from targeted systems, but it is not yet clear to whom this intelligence has been passed.

“What we’re starting to see is an increase in targeted attacks. We know critical systems, like those in oil production, are vulnerable to attack,” security researcher David Emm told the BBC.