U.S. Coast Guard personnel and FBI agents boarded a commercial oil tanker bound for Texas last month after determining that a foreign actor may have compromised the vessel’s network while it was crossing the Atlantic, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.
On Aug. 21, a specialized Coast Guard law-enforcement team, a vessel inspector, members of the Coast Guard Cyber Protection Team and FBI Cyber Action Team operators boarded the inbound foreign-flagged ship. Working alongside the crew and the vessel’s corporate operators, they inspected its operational technology and information-technology systems and took steps to remove the threat, the Coast Guard said.
“Currently, there are no reports of operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts,” the Coast Guard said Tuesday.
The U.S. government has not identified the suspected actor behind the potential breach. Iranian state media, however, highlighted the incident in the weeks after it was reported.
The Coast Guard has not named the tanker. Iranian reports appear to refer to the VL Prosperity, a 333-meter Liberian-flagged very large crude carrier capable of transporting about 2.3 million barrels of oil. Public vessel-tracking data indicates the ship was heading to Galveston, Texas, at the time.
Unverified accounts of the suspected cyberattack first emerged publicly after the tanker had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, the narrow waterway between Spain and Morocco.
On Aug. 20, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that the VL Prosperity was attacked Aug. 7 while sailing from Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal to the United States. The vessel allegedly lost communications for 30 hours. Mehr, citing an unnamed crew member, said the attackers penetrated engine-room systems, reduced engine-cooling flow, increased engine speed and disrupted the fuel and lubricating-oil systems.
Four days later, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency published an article titled “No American Vessel Is Safe Anymore: Will Cannons Give Way to Codes?”
The United States has not disclosed the scope of the possible intrusion, confirming only that there were signs the tanker’s network had been compromised. Iranian state media has alleged that hackers gained control of propulsion, navigation and cargo systems.
A cyberattack on a commercial oil tanker could pose risks far beyond data theft or a loss of communications. Modern tankers rely on interconnected operational technology, or OT, to manage propulsion, navigation and cargo operations, with those systems linked to networks. Although remote control of such systems would be unlikely, a hostile state that gained access could theoretically manipulate the vessel’s movement or critical machinery, potentially turning a massive oil tanker into a weapon near a port.
