On August 21, 2024, Halliburton, a leading U.S. oilfield services firm, experienced a significant cyberattack that disrupted operations at its north Houston campus and affected global connectivity networks. The company has advised its staff against connecting to internal networks, highlighting the seriousness of the breach [74a44a86]. Following this incident, on August 26, 2024, the Port of Seattle reported outages potentially due to a cyberattack, impacting internet and web systems, including those at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This incident follows a recent CrowdStrike outage and previous outages at major companies like Amazon and Microsoft [e6090179].
The Halliburton attack adds to a growing list of cyber incidents targeting the energy sector, reminiscent of the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack attributed to the DarkSide group, which caused major fuel supply disruptions and price spikes [74a44a86]. Other major companies, including UnitedHealth Group and MGM Resorts, have also faced ransomware attacks, underscoring the vulnerability of corporate networks to cyber threats [74a44a86]. Experts emphasize the need for stronger cybersecurity measures in critical infrastructure, highlighting the potential economic and safety risks associated with such attacks. Grant Geyer from Claroty and Roman Arutyunov from Xage Security stress the importance of adopting zero trust cybersecurity solutions to mitigate risks. Marco Ayala from InfraGard noted the vulnerability of even major companies like Halliburton to cyber threats [e6090179]. As the frequency of such attacks increases, concerns about the security of critical infrastructure in the U.S. continue to mount, prompting calls for enhanced cybersecurity measures across various sectors.