(Bloomberg) — Halliburton Co., the world’s greatest supplier of fracing companies, stated it’s alerting clients and different stakeholders after an unauthorized third celebration gained entry to a few of its methods.
The Houston oilfield contractor has activated its cybersecurity response plan that features taking sure methods offline for defense in addition to notifying regulation enforcement, it stated in a submitting with U.S. regulators. When reached by cellphone Friday, an organization consultant declined to remark additional.
“The corporate’s ongoing investigation and response embody restoration of its methods and evaluation of materiality,” in line with the submitting, noting that Halliburton remains to be working to establish any results from the incident.
The assault comes because the oil business is more and more counting on digital applied sciences, together with synthetic intelligence, to drill extra wells for much less cash. With its international footprint, Halliburton is likely one of the business’s largest contractors serving to oil and pure gasoline corporations from the U.S. to Asia discover underground pockets of hydrocarbons and full new wells.
The U.S. Division of Vitality stated in an e mail it’s conscious of a cyber incident affecting an power contractor, however added there are not any indications the problem is impacting companies.
It’s not the primary cyber incident to have an effect on the U.S. power sector. In Might 2021, a ransomware hack towards Colonial Pipeline Co. caught the U.S. authorities abruptly after it led to gasoline shortages alongside the jap coast, resulting in higher give attention to hacks towards essential infrastructure as a nationwide safety precedence.
Since then, the U.S. has continued to endure a string of incidents affecting essential companies, together with meals manufacturing, hospital and water methods. Later in Might 2021, a hack towards meat producer JBS SA disrupted beef provides. In August 2023, a hack towards Clorox Co. led to shortages of cleansing provides and different merchandise on cabinets.
In February, a ransom hack towards Change Healthcare, a unit of insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc., paralyzed a lot of the nation’s health-care methods and uncovered affected person medical information. The identical month, U.S. pharmaceutical firm Cencora Inc., stated it additionally suffered a hack. In March, Jake Sullivan, U.S. nationwide safety adviser, warned governors that disabling cyberattacks have been placing water and wastewater methods all through the nation, with the potential to disrupt the provision of protected consuming water. In June, ransomware hackers focused software program firm CDK World LLC, disrupting hundreds of auto dealerships for weeks.
CISA, the U.S. cyber protection company, and the FBI declined remark.
Halliburton stated it first turned conscious of the assault Aug. 21, releasing an organization assertion later that day of a problem affecting sure firm methods.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Keith Mackey amplified the Halliburton submitting in a word to traders Friday, giving a “impartial” response to the incident. Halliburton shares rose 1.96% to $31.74 at 12:38 p.m. in NY on Friday amid a broader surge within the general market.
