Halliburton, one of many world’s largest suppliers of providers to the power business, has confirmed a cyberattack that pressured it to close down a few of its methods earlier this week.
“On August 21, 2024, Halliburton Firm (the “Firm”) turned conscious that an unauthorized third occasion gained entry to sure of its methods,” the oil providers big stated in a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee (SEC).
“When the Firm discovered of the problem, the Firm activated its cybersecurity response plan and launched an investigation internally with the help of exterior advisors to evaluate and remediate the unauthorized exercise.”
The corporate added that the incident (first reported by Reuters on Wednesday based mostly on info supplied by nameless sources) prompted it to close down some methods to comprise the breach.
Halliburton additionally reported the breach to related legislation enforcement companies, and its IT consultants are actually engaged on restoring affected units and assessing the assault’s impression.
“The Firm’s response efforts included proactively taking sure methods offline to assist defend them and notifying legislation enforcement. The Firm’s ongoing investigation and response embody restoration of its methods and evaluation of materiality,” Halliburton stated.
“The Firm is speaking with its clients and different stakeholders. The Firm is following its process-based security requirements for ongoing operations beneath the Halliburton Administration System, and is working to establish any results of the incident.”
Nature of the assault but to be revealed
The oil providers supplier has but to disclose the character of the assault, with a Division of Vitality spokesperson confirming on Thursday that “the precise nature of the incident is unknown presently.”
Based in 1919, Halliburton employs over 40,000 folks and offers oil applied sciences, merchandise, and providers to power firms worldwide. In July, Halliburton reported revenues of $5.8 billion and an working margin of 18% for the second quarter of 2024.
A Halliburton spokesperson was not instantly out there for remark when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier at the moment.
In 2021, the DarkSide ransomware gang hit the methods of Colonial Pipeline, the most important gasoline pipeline in the US, which provides roughly half of all of the gasoline on the U.S. East Coast, forcing it additionally to take some methods offline to comprise the assault and quickly halt all pipeline operations.
The DarkSide ransomware gang abruptly shut down after elevated consideration from legislation enforcement, the U.S. authorities, and the media, however not earlier than Colonial Pipeline paid $4.4 million in cryptocurrency for a decryptor, most later recovered by the FBI.