Oil drilling and fracking giant Halliburton said it had shut down some of its internal systems following a cyberattack earlier this week.
Halliburton said in a brief statement filed with government regulators on Thursday that it became aware of the unauthorized access to its systems on Wednesday and responded by “proactively taking some systems offline.” The company said it was “working to determine the impact of the incident.”
Halliburton is one of the world's largest energy companies, with nearly 48,000 employees in dozens of countries, according to company reports. The U.S. energy giant has been widely linked to the massive oil spill caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, after which Halliburton agreed to a $1.1 billion settlement with the U.S. government.
Reuters first reported the cyberattack on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment on the attack or its impact on energy services.
It's not uncommon for companies to shut down systems after a cyberattack to prevent the intruder from continuing to access the one they compromised or gaining access to other systems. This year, several companies, including healthcare giant Change Healthcare and automotive software maker CDK, have shut down their systems after being hit by ransomware.
Halliburton spokeswoman Victoria Ingalls declined to comment beyond the company's filing. When asked by TechCrunch, Ingalls declined to discuss the nature of the security incident or say whether the company had received any contact from the intruder.
“Any further communication will be in the form of an 8-K,” the spokesperson said, referring to public filings.
On Friday, TechCrunch identified a potential security issue that could allow anyone to access Halliburton's internal systems through a single sign-on provider. When asked if TechCrunch was aware of the issue or if Halliburton provides a way for people to publicly report security flaws, Halliburton spokesperson Ingalls declined to answer and repeated the company's boilerplate statement.
When asked by TechCrunch, the spokesperson declined to say whether Halliburton has an executive who oversees cybersecurity responsibilities.
Halliburton is on track to generate $23 billion in revenue in 2023, up 13% from a year ago, according to the company's most recent full-year earnings report. Halliburton Chief Executive Jeff Miller received $19 million in total executive compensation in 2023, company filings show.