Energy giant, Shell forced to reroute supplies after cyber-attack on two German oil suppliers

On Saturday 29^th of January 2022, Shell, the energy giant had to re-routing oil supplies due to a cyber-attack against two subsidiaries of two German oil suppliers, Oiltanking GmbH Group and Mabanaft GmbH & Co. KG Group. The incident resulted in disruptions to their IT systems and therefore caused disruptions to their supply chains.

There have been concerns around shortages occurring as Oiltanking GmbH supplies a total of 26 companies in Germany with fuel but officials from both companies have stated that there is no concerns of a shortage occurring. And Frank Shaper, the managing director of the independent tank storage association in Germany also told Der Spiegel, a German weekly news magazine, that the incident pose no danger to the supply of fuel Germany in terms of heating and transportation.

Currently Oiltanking GmbH has resorted to using alternative charging points while both companies are working with third party speciliasts and relevant authorities to solve the incident according to their contingency plans. No ransomware or threat group has named responsible for the incident but sources including the German newspaper Handelsblatt have found evidence that the BlackCat ransomware group could be responsible for the incident. Although Claudia Wagner, head of communications for Oiltanking GmbH, would only confirm that the initial cyber incident was discovered on Saturday, January 29^th and would not confirm that the BlackCat ransomware group was behind the incident.