Dark Web Spotlight: Oil’s Summertime Sadness

The oil and energy industries have had a rough summer. Starting in May, the Colonial Pipeline hack halted oil transport for six days, leading to 17 states declaring a state of emergency.  June brought cybercriminals impersonating the defunct DarkSide Ransomware in a campaign of extortion emails against energy contacts. They pretend that the servers were hacked and they could exfiltrate confidential documents. Their modus operandi being amateurish, they did not receive any bitcoin in their wallet. The extortion campaign cast a wide net targeting food and energy companies globally with the main focus being Japan. Since these sectors are expected to deliver daily, there is greater pressure to avoid disruption in service.  July brings new ransomware named “Vice Society”. Their website was only recently advertised on the dark web but they claim their first victim was in late May. Published on their website is information from eight companies, notably Filgo Oil, a partner and distributor of Shell.  Given the attention cybercriminals are giving to these industries, we’re curious to see what the rest of July and August bring. Protecting yourself and your company from cyber attacks can be as simple as finding hidden assets and exposed databases before hackers do. Visit our Asset Discovery and Monitoring page for more information.