Halliburton confirms cyberattack, acknowledges data was stolen

Texas-based oil and gas company Halliburton has confirmed that it was the victim of a cyberattack and that data was stolen during the attack.

In an 8-K filing addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Halliburton says that an unauthorized party was able to gain access to some of its IT systems on August 21.

“When it 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 unauthorized activity,” the filing states.

To minimize the impact of the attack, the firm took certain systems offline and notified law enforcement agencies. The investigation into the security incident is still ongoing. Affected systems are currently being restored. Security experts are inspecting what data was stolen from the company’s systems.

Due to the limited access to come business applications, the incident has an impact on the day-to-day operations. Halliburton however believes that the incident has no material impact on the company’s financial results, but takes into account that it could be subjected to certain liabilities.

“The company remains subject to various risks due to the incident, including the adequacy of processes during the period of disruption, diversion of management’s attention, potential litigation, changes in customer behavior, and regulatory scrutiny,” it says.

Halliburton first filed an 8-K filing on August 22, but didn’t provide much details.

BleepingComputer was the first media outlet to link Halliburton’s cyberattack to the RansomHub ransomware operation.

American intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently told that at least 210 businesses and organizations have fallen victim to RansomHub since it first appeared in February 2024, representing the water and wastewater, information technology, government services and facilities, healthcare and public health, emergency services, food and agriculture, financial services, commercial facilities, critical manufacturing, transportation, and communications critical infrastructure sectors.