February 4, 2022
Three European oil transport and storage companies are currently dealing with cyberattacks that have disrupted their IT systems. The companies include Oiltanking in Germany, SEA-Invest in Belgium and Evos in the Netherlands.
As investigations into the attacks continue, cybersecurity experts urge people not to conclude that the attack was coordinated to disrupt Europe’s energy sector, which is crucial in the midst of the current confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
Brett Callow, a threat analyst at cyber security firm Emsisoft, said of the attacks: “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. This is why you sometimes see sector-based or geographic-based clusters of incidents.”
Another possible reason is that the three companies may use the same software to operate.
A SEA-Invest spokesperson said the company was hit on Sunday and that all ports in Europe and Africa were affected. Whether there is a connection between the attack and the attacks of the other two companies remains to be investigated.
Oiltanking announced that a cyberattack occurred on Monday, which forced the company to operate with a “limited capacity” during an investigation.
For more information, read the original story on the BBC.
