Canada’s Trans-Northern Pipelines claimed to be attacked by ALPHV/BlackCat

Ransomware operation ALPHV/BlackCat has admitted to compromising major Canadian oil and gas pipeline operator Trans-Northern Pipelines in an attack that it claims resulted in the exfiltration of 190GB of data, according to The Register. Trans-Northern later confirmed that some of its internal computer systems had been targeted by a cyber incident in November, which was immediately contained. "We continue to safely operate our pipeline systems. We are aware of posts on the dark web claiming to contain company information, and we are investigating those claims," said a Trans-Northern spokesperson. In addition to admitting an attack against Trans-Northern, ALPHV/BlackCat has also taken credit for infiltrating the systems of U.S. electric utility cooperative Lower Valley Energy, Canadian crude oil treatment and water management firm Rush Energy Services, and Spanish electricity provider SerCide. "Governments need to quickly come up with ways to better secure critical infrastructure as, if they do not, it's only a matter of time before a significant, if not catastrophic, attack takes place," said Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow.