Cesar Chavez of the Rafael Ravard Refinery in Baton Rouge,
LA announced this morning that overnight the refinery operations had been shut down
by a a ransomware attack. “It appears that the refinery was the victim of the
WannaControl ransomware. The attackers are demanding 100 Bitcoin to release our
control systems back into operation,” he reported. At today’s exchange rate
that is about $930,000.
Chaves reported that: “We have not yet made a decision on
paying the ransom. We will consult with our insurers and the Federal Bureau of
Inquiry before finalizing that decision.”
Chavez explained that the refinery operations were shutdown
in an orderly manner, but there were numerous flaring incidents during the
process. “It does not appear that any damage has been done to the refinery and
no personnel were injured,” he explained.
ECS-CERT and the FBI will be conducting a joint
investigation of this attack, according to Immanuel C. Securitage of the
ECS-CERT. “Preliminary indications are that this attack may be related to the
announcement by Robotron earlier this week;” Securitage noted. That announcement
was about the possible compromise of software shipped by Robotron after a cyberattack
on their facility last October.
When asked about that announcement Chaves acknowledged that
the refinery had installed a number of the potentially impacted Robotron controlled pumps
during a turn around last year. The company had been planning on replacing
those pumps during the next scheduled maintenance activity of each refinery
unit. “We may try to do that before the refinery restarts, but it depends on
the availability of replacement pumps;” Chavez told reporters.
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