- Four U.S. pipeline companies so far have reported their electronic systems for communicating with customers were shut down in recent days, with three confirming a cyberattack as the cause.
- Yesterday, Oneok (OKE -1%) said it disabled its system as a precaution after determining that a third-party provider was the target of an apparent cyberattack; the day before, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP -1.1%), Boardwalk Pipeline Partners (BWP -0.8%) and Chesapeake Utilities' (CPK +0.6%) Eastern Shore Natural Gas reported communications breakdowns.
- The Latitude Technologies unit of Energy Services Group, which ETP and Eastern Shore have identified as their third-party provider, says it does not believe any customer data was compromised.
- ETP says the electronic data interchange system provided by Latitude was back up and working Monday night, and Eastern Shore Natural Gas’s Latitude system also was restored on Monday.
- The shutdowns are “not operationally serious in the sense that it’s stopping the natural gas from moving, but it is serious because it’s causing these companies to use workarounds for communication,” says Rae McQuade, president of the North American Energy Standards Board.
At least four gas data networks nicked by cyberattack
This was corrected on 02/06/2019 at 11:28 AM. The original post accidentally used a ticker for Buckeye Pipeline Partners instead of the correct BWP ticker for Boardwalk Pipeline Partners. Seeking Alpha regrets the error.