CYBER-ATTACKS have hit a number of oil transport and storage companies across Europe.
At Oiltanking in Germany, SEA-Invest in Belgium, and Evos in the Netherlands, information technology systems have been disrupted.
According to BBC, dozens of terminals with oil storage and transport around the world have been affected, with firms reporting that the attacks occurred over the weekend.
Experts, however, warn against making the assumption that this is a concerted attack. According to the BBC, all three organizations’ IT systems were offline or seriously impacted.
Belgian prosecutors said they’re looking into a cyber-attack that hit SEA-Invest terminals, including the company’s largest, in Antwerp the SEA-Tank.
According to a company representative, the corporation was attacked on last weekend, with every port they operate in Europe and Africa being affected.
Adding that the company is striving to get a backup IT system up and running, but most liquid transportation is still operating.
According to it’s spokeswoman, SEA-Invest is aware of cyber-attacks against other companies, but no link has been established.
For Evos in the Netherlands, the spokeperson revealed that the IT services at terminals in Terneuzen, Ghent, and Malta have “caused some execution delays.”
Oiltanking Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, a company that stores and transports oil, automobile fuels, and other petroleum products, announced on Monday that it had also been hacked.
According to the company, it was forced to function at “limited capacity” and was investigating the situation.
According to some sources, the attack on Oiltanking was caused by ransomware, where hackers encrypts data and renders computer systems useless until a ransom is paid.
Following a ransomware attack on US oil supplier Colonial Pipeline in May of last year, supplies were tightened across the US, prompting various states to declare an emergency.
An employee of a major barging company in the Netherlands told the BBC that port supply chains were disrupted.
The problem was initially observed on Tuesday, when oil delivery began to slow down, “things are moving but much slower than normal”. he remarked, before the hack which occurred this weekend.
This disruptions are occurring in a time when there is rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia as well as rising energy prices which remains a cause of serious concern.
However, cyber-security experts have warned against assuming that the various breaches are part of a concerted effort to destabilize the European energy sector.
“Some types of malware scoop up emails and contact lists and use them to automatically spam malicious attachments or links, so companies with shared connections can sometimes be hit in quick succession,” said Brett Callow, Threat Analyst at cyber-security company Emsisoft.
“This is why you sometimes see sector-based or geographic-based clusters of incidents.”
Another argument is that all of the companies utilize the same software for their operations, which may have been hacked.
