Russian hackers targeting Dutch gas terminal: report

Hackers are doing “exploratory research” into the systems of the Dutch LNG terminals, trying to find ways into the systems, cyber security company Dragos told RTL Z. According to the FBI and other investigators, the hacker groups are affiliated with Russia.

“We know that LNG terminals are a target. It’s just a question of when and how,” Casey Brooks of the American cyber security company Dragos told the broadcaster. Hacker groups Xenotime and Kamacite are poking at the digital systems of Gasunie’s LNG terminal in Eemshaven in Rotterdam, Brooks said. “These are tests to see where they could potentially have an impact with a digital attack.”

According to the FBI, Xenotime and Kamacite have ties to the Russian secret service.

Dutch company EclecticIQ also noticed more activity around vital infrastructure in Europe and the Netherlands. It makes sense that Russian hackers are now targeting Dutch LNG terminals, Joep Gommers of EclecticIQ said to RTL. “It is certainly within Russia’s modus operandi and focus at this time.”

Cybersecurity expert Fox-IT thinks there is a concrete threat of malicious parties targeting companies in the energy sector due to the energy crisis. “Particularly in the supply chain for the supply and distribution of LNG,’ a spokesperson said. “The parties interested in this sector are probably state-sponsored malicious groups, for example, the groups led by the Russian FSB and GRU.”

Bart Groothuis, a VVD Member of the European Parliament, is aware of signals that Russia’s targeting gas supplies. “It is gradually time that we act on this before things go wrong. Gas is Russia’s favorite weapon against the EU. Causing chaos on the energy market and manipulating that market is a cereal geopolitical objective,” he said to the broadcaster.