Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU) is the latest energy company to fall victim to a cybersecurity incident.
In a news release issued late Sunday evening, the company stated it had experienced a cybersecurity breach but is unaware of any evidence of any compromised information.
“The company is taking measures and working with third-party experts to resolve the situation and has notified appropriate authorities,” Suncor Energy stated.
Cybersecurity attacks rise against energy companies
The cybersecurity attack against Suncor Energy comes a little more than a year after the company, along with 20 other oil and gas companies, formed the Cyber Resilience Pledge at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos, Switzerland.
The action is in response to major security breaches in the past two years that have highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure,” the organization said in a statement.
Industry-specific principles include:
- Understanding the significance of cyber risks
- Aligning cyber-risk management with business needs
- Incorporating cybersecurity expertise with board governance
- Ensuring organizations are designed to support cybersecurity
Between 2017 and 2022, cybersecurity incidents on energy companies continued to rise, with attacks reaching all-time highs last year. It is estimated that 45 cybersecurity threats took place over the five year period, with 13 of them occurring in the first half of 2022 alone.
Overall, roughly 11 per cent of cybersecurity attacks that occurred in 2022 were against energy companies.
It is estimated that the biggest threat to energy companies last year was exploring public-facing applications, which resulted in 40 per cent of incidents. Spear-phishing and external remote services clocked in at 20 per cent each, while botnets accounted for 19 per cent and ransomware and business email compromises totalled 15 per cent each.
And – despite the alliance that was put in place in 2022 – other energy companies have fallen victim to cybersecurity threats so far in 2023.
According to IT World Canada, there was an attack against another Canadian energy company in April where stolen documents from the U.S. Pentagon quoted a group called Zarya stating it had compromised the technology side of a pipeline company.
Despite Sunday’s reported incident, shares of Suncor Energy (SU) remained in the green on Monday, closing the trading session up 1.81 per cent to C$38.19.
Suncor’s operations include oil sands development, production and upgrading; offshore oil and gas; petroleum refining in Canada and the United States; and the company’s Petro-Canada retail and wholesale distribution networks.
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