U.S. oil giant Halliburton says cyber attack disrupted IT operations

American oilfield giant Halliburton said a cyber security incident resulting from unauthorised access to its network caused operational disruptions, forcing it to take certain systems offline and initiate restoration efforts.

Last week, Reuters reported that Halliburton was dealing with significant IT disruption that resulted from a suspected cyber attack. The oilfield giant said it was investigating the incident and has engaged cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

According to the Reuters, the incident affected Halliburton’s Houston campus and some aspects of its global connectivity. Also, employees were asked not to connect to the company’s internal IT network, indicating that the company might have suffered a ransomware attack.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton said that the operational disruption was indeed caused by a cyber attack that involved a threat actor infiltrating its internal network.

“When the Company learned of the issue, the Company activated its cybersecurity response plan and launched an investigation internally with the support of external advisors to assess and remediate the unauthorised activity,” reads the filing.

To contain the impact of the cyber attack, Halliburton proactively took its systems offline and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the incident.

“The Company’s ongoing investigation and response include restoration of its systems and assessment of materiality.

“The Company is communicating with its customers and other stakeholders. The Company is following its process-based safety standards for ongoing operations under the Halliburton Management System, and is working to identify any effects of the incident,” Halliburton added in its SEC filing.

The company is yet to share details on who is behind the cyber attack, the nature of the same or how the threat actors infiltrated its internal network. At the time of publishing, no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack on Halliburton.