US natural gas companies targeted by hackers before Ukraine invasion: report
Cyberattack targeted LNG producers, including U.S.-based Chevron and Cheniere Energy
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Hackers infiltrated computers belonging to current and former employees at nearly two dozen major natural gas suppliers just before Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new report.
In the two weeks leading up to the Russian invasion last month, a cyberattack targeted 21 companies involved with the production of LNG (liquefied natural gas), including California-based Chevron and Houston-based Cheniere Energy, Bloomberg reported.
In those two weeks, hackers gained access to more than 100 computers belonging to current and former employees of those companies, Bloomberg reported.
Traffic passes a downtown Los Angeles gas station where a gallon of gas costs over $6 on Dec. 10, 2021. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The operation was the "first stage" in an effort to destabilize the energy industry, Resecurity CEO Gene Yoo, whose company discovered the attack, told Bloomberg.
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Yoo said he believed the hackers are state-sponsored, "but he declined to speculate further," Bloomberg reported.
"It’s not clear whether the attacks are directly related to the invasion of Ukraine, but Resecurity said the hacks began about two weeks before the invasion, after U.S. officials had urged critical infrastructure operators to ‘adopt a heightened state of awareness’ for Russian state-sponsored attacks," Bloomberg reported.
Retired Gen. Keith Alexander, CEO of cybersecurity firm IronNet and former director of the National Security Agency, warned on FOX Business last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin's "hacker army" would likely target America's energy industry.