Energy is overtaking banking and finance as a target for cyber-criminals in the Middle East, yet companies in the sector are leaving themselves significantly more open to a successful attack, leading international experts have told the Security in Energy conference in Abu Dhabi.
Co-located within the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), Security in Energy recognises the increasingly critical importance of IT systems to oil and gas operations.
In an opening address to delegates, Ibrahim AlShamrani, Executive Director of Operations at Saudi Arabia’s National Cyber Security Center, said 300 new malware samples were being discovered each day, and that his organisation was facing a growing number of attacks on the energy industry.
“The energy sector is trending to be the second most targeted sector in the country in 2017, behind the government and ahead of the financial and telecommunications sectors,” Al Shamrani said. “However, attackers are three times more successful in compromising energy companies than they are in the financial sector. In this era, if oil and gas companies think they haven’t been attacked, or even compromised, I can tell them, you are not looking hard enough.”
In a keynote address to the Security in Energy conference, Don Randall, former Head of Security and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at the Bank of England, said he believed that figure was probably around US $400 billion, and growing at between 10 and 20 percent per year.
“I think we have to be quite radical in how we structure the responsibility and role of those who are there to police cyber activities,” Randall said. “Seriously look at who is policing your IT, and ask is that the same person who is managing it, maintaining it, implementing it, and looking after it – and potentially covering it up? That’s the issue.”
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and organised by the Global Energy division of dmg events, ADIPEC is one of the world’s leading oil and gas events, and the largest in Africa and the Middle East.