A third US pipeline company reported its electronic system for communicating with customers has stopped working, a day after a cyber attack resulted in a similar shutdown.
A third US pipeline company reported its electronic system for communicating with customers has stopped working, a day after a cyber attack resulted in a similar shutdown.
The Department of Homeland Security are currently trying to obtain vital information relating to the intrusion and the entry method, however they have no immediate comment on the latest shutdown. The closure that hit Oneok Inc on Tuesday 3 April caused a shutdown of natural gas pipelines communication systems, in the Permian Basin, in Texas and the Rocky Mountain region.
System downtime
The systems that were breached on the Tuesday were being used for peer-to-peer communication, so that customers could relay their needs to the relevant operators. Even though no operational systems of oil extraction were damaged, the electronic data interchange system was down for an unspecified amount of time.
Many experts believe that despite the natural gas had no actual problem with moving, they are worried that companies will start to have to use workarounds for communication, creating inefficiency and significant time lag. These particular experts also proclaim that industries that have vital economic relevance; energy, pipelines and finance, will always have a large risk factor due to socio-economic tensions.
Growing trend
The systems are gaining attention from hackers because they’ve proven to be "low-hanging" fruit that creates an opportunity for ransomware or to sell the information on the dark web. This isn’t the first time US pipelines have been targeted. In 2012, a federal cyber response team said in a note that it had identified a number of “cyber intrusions” targeting natural gas pipeline sector companies. The group, the Industrial Control System Cyber Emergency Response Team, is a division of Homeland Security.
Many of the 3 million miles of pipelines that spread across America rely on third-party companies for their electronic communication systems. The payment made to third parties comes with the expectation that all risks should be properly controlled and insured.