U.S. Coast Guard and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents last month boarded tankers to probe suspected cyber attacks on the vessels bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast that allegedly took place while the ships were transiting the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain.
A Coast Guard-led team that included FBI agents boarded an oil tanker in August before it could arrive at a U.S. port, the Coast Guard said this week.
The cyber action teams examined the foreign-flagged vessel’s systems.
“Currently, there are no reports of operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts,” the Coast Guard said in a statement carried by CBS News.
The Coast Guard and the FBI did not name either the tanker or whom they suspect of cyber attacks.
At least two tankers are now under investigation over suspected cyber attacks that may have taken place in early August while the vessels were transiting the Strait of Gibraltar bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast, U.S. officials with knowledge of the incidents told the Wall Street Journal.
The boarding and the inspection of the two foreign-flagged vessels “were designed to ensure integrity of the vessel’s operational and information technology systems following indications that the networks of both vessels were compromised,” according to statements by the Coast Guard and the FBI.
The cyber action teams boarded the two vessels on August 21 and 24, the FBI said. One of these was carrying oil and the other one was shipping LNG.
The incidents are raising concerns that either Iran or other U.S. adversaries have been trying to disrupt operations at a key chokepoint or a U.S. port and widen the Middle Eastern conflict, the U.S. officials told the Journal.
The relevant U.S. authorities have not announced who they suspect could have been behind these cyberattacks. However, concerns are rising that malicious actors may be seeking to expand the conflict in the Middle East.
By Michael Kern for Oilprice.com
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