Suncor, a leading energy corporation in North America, has recently been hit by a cyber attack that resulted in customers at gas stations across Canada being unable to use their credit or debit cards. Even car wash systems fell victim to the attack.
The company announced on Sunday, in a somewhat brief press release, that they were the victims of a “cybersecurity incident,” but did not divulge much more detail.
However, the effects were immediately apparent to those attempting to use any of the 1,800-plus Petro-Canada gas stations (a subsidiary of Suncor) nationwide.
Despite the gas stations being open, Petro-Canada admitted via several tweets that they were unable to process payments via credit or debit cards. Moreover, individuals trying to access Petro-Canada’s loyalty program, Petro-Points, were also unable to log in.
Earlier today, Petro-Canada updated customers via Twitter, mentioning they were “making progress” in resolving the ongoing issues. Most locations were reportedly back to accepting card payments.
Nevertheless, the Petro-Points program, the company’s app, and some car wash services remained unavailable.
It’s still uncertain whether the incident was a ransomware attack, although such an occurrence would not be unexpected in the present cybersecurity climate.
If indeed it was a ransomware attack, the likelihood is that the perpetrators may have encrypted and/or stolen data from Suncor’s network.
“As of now, we have found no evidence to suggest any customer, supplier, or employee data has been compromised or misused due to this incident,” reassured the company in its press statement over the weekend.
There are no details available yet on whether Suncor has been contacted or asked for a ransom by the attackers.
In response to this incident, Suncor has enlisted the assistance of external cybersecurity professionals to delve deeper into the issue and to guide their response. The energy titan has also reported the security breach to the authorities.
Source: BitDefender
