Oilfield giant Halliburton took a $35 million hit from the August ransomware attack

American oilfield giant Halliburton said that the cyber security incident it suffered earlier this year resulted in $35 million in financial losses.

 

In August, Reuters reported that Halliburton experienced a significant IT disruption that resulted from a suspected cyber attack. The oilfield giant later said it was investigating the incident and had engaged cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident.

 

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton said that the operational disruption was indeed caused by a cyber attack that involved a threat actor infiltrating its internal network.

 

“When the Company learned of the issue, the Company activated its cybersecurity response plan and launched an investigation internally with the support of external advisors to assess and remediate the unauthorised activity,” reads the filing.

 

To contain the impact of the cyber attack, Halliburton proactively took its systems offline and notified relevant law enforcement authorities about the incident.

 

A few days later, it was revealed that the RansomHub ransomware group claimed responsibility for the attack at Halliburton and listed it as a victim on its data leak site.

 

Soon thereafter, the company said in another SEC filing that its investigation found that the sensitive personal information of individuals associated with it was accessed during the data security incident.

 

“The Company believes the unauthorised third party accessed and exfiltrated information from the Company’s systems.  The Company is evaluating the nature and scope of the information, and what notifications are required,” reads Halliburton’s fresh filing with the SEC.

 

In its third quarter 2024 earnings report, the company said that it has incurred a loss of $35 million resulting from the ransomware attack.

 

In a statement shared with the media, Jeff Miller, Chairman, President, and CEO at Halliburton, said, “We experienced a $0.02 per share impact to our adjusted earnings from lost or delayed revenue due to the August cybersecurity event and storms in the Gulf of Mexico. Our full year expectations for free cash flow and cash return to shareholders remain unchanged, and we expect both to accelerate in the fourth quarter.

 

“In North America the execution of our strategy has transformed the resilience and profitability of our business. I expect we will continue to maximize value by widening the moat around our Zeus platform and growing our drilling services business,” he added.