Loading ...Reports have it that oil companies are now facing more attacks from hackers. According to some executives from oil companies, the attacks are becoming more frequent and hackers are now more well-equipped than before, which can bring heavy damage to oil industries.
Shell – world’s fifth largest company in the world that deals in oil and gas, is reported to have been attacked frequently by the hackers. This can bring a huge damage and loss to the company.
”If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of the valves, or release valves, you can imagine what happens. It will cost lives and it will cost production, environmental damage – huge, huge damage,” said Ludolf Luehmann, IT manager for Shell.
Attacking a company like Shell can make things worse because the company operates in 90 countries and is said to produce more than three million barrels of oil per day. An attack can lead to disruption in the distribution of oil around the globe.
According to Norway’s National Security Authority, Shell is not the only company facing high level of threats from hackers; more than 10 energy companies have been attacked so far by malware programs. These threats come through e-mails and target sensitive information related to the companies. There are reports of such attacks on other oil companies as well.
The companies now fear a similar attack like the one on Iran’s nuclear program that used a sophisticated worm called Stuxnet. This worm can bring heavy damage if it infects a system. It has the ability to reprogram and give new instructions to the infected machinery. Another new worm Duqu, considered to be the successor of Stuxnet, can control your computer system remotely. Such threats pose as a great danger to the companies and signal that a strong security measure is the need of the hour.
