Two oil tankers bound for Texas were boarded by US Coast Guard and FBI personnel last month after cyberattacks disrupted the vessels during their voyage toward the United States, according to a CBS News report citing US officials.
One of the ships, the VL Prosperity, is a Liberian-flagged crude tanker that left Egypt on August 1 en route to Galveston, Texas, per vessel-tracking records cited by CBS News.
Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported on August 20 that the cyberattack had allegedly occurred on August 7 as the tanker passed through the Strait of Gibraltar. Citing a crew member, the Iranian outlet said the intrusion reached the engine room, with hackers slowing coolant flow, raising engine speed and interfering with fuel delivery.
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The hackers also allegedly accessed navigation and cargo systems and cut off the ship’s communications for roughly 30 hours.
One day after Mehr’s report, a team that included Coast Guard cyber specialists, law enforcement, a vessel inspector, and FBI Cyber Action Team members boarded the VL Prosperity and spent four days aboard.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the second ship was boarded on August 24. Both vessels were boarded after they arrived in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Coast Guard has not publicly linked the incident to Iran. Rear Adm. Amy Grable, commander of Coast Guard Cyber Command, told CBS News that investigators did find evidence of a malicious cyber actor after reviewing the vessel’s IT and other onboard systems.
She noted that nothing uncovered during the inspection suggested the tanker was unsafe to operate. This was one of an estimated 40-50 similar boardings the Coast Guard’s Cyber Protection Team has carried out over the past year, Grable said.