12 December 2011
The oil industry has been warned that cyber-attacks could “cost lives” and cause “huge damage”.
Ludolf Luehmann, an IT manager for Shell, told the World Petroleum Conference in Doha that the company had suffered an increased number of attacks.
He said the hacks had been motivated by both commercial and criminal intent.
Security researcher David Emm said that such attacks were “not only possible, but they’re now real”.
Mr Luehmann said Shell and others in the industry were experiencing a “new dimension” of attack which could leave physical machinery at serious risk.