CALGARY — Canadian oil company Suncor Energy Inc. has confirmed it has been the victim of a cyberattack.
Paterson said much is still unknown about the attack and its impacts, but added his early read on the situation is that this is not a minor data breach. "I think that this actually could be the Canadian Colonial Pipeline, just in the sense that Suncor is such a large part of the economy." In Canada, there hasn't been a large-scale, successful cyberattack on a domestic oil and gas company, though cybersecurity experts have been warning for years that this country's energy industry is an attractive target for cybercriminals.
"The cybersecurity industry as a whole, and certainly governments both at the federal level and others, have been sounding the alarm for many years that critical infrastructure in particular is vulnerable." Suncor said Sunday that some transactions with customers and suppliers may be impacted as the company continues to work to resolve the situation. It also said it has notified appropriate authorities about the attack.