The operating company of the Greek natural gas network Desfa has fallen victim to a cyber attack. Cyber criminals broke into parts of the IT infrastructure and tried to gain illegal access to electronic data. This had an impact on the availability of some systems and led to the leak of an unknown number of directories and files.
Supply guaranteed
In reporting the incident on Saturday, Desfa explains that the operation of the National Natural Gas System (NNGS) can continue safely and reliably. The administration of the NNGS runs smoothly, Desfa can continue to ensure the natural gas supply at all entry and exit nodes in the country “safely and adequately”.
According to media reports, the day before the report, the operators of the Tor website for the Ragnar Locker ransomware admitted to having broken into company networks and stolen sensitive company data. The cybergang contacted the company to inform them of a serious vulnerability that led to the breach, but have yet to receive a response.
This will probably not happen either, since Desfa closes its report with the words: “Desfa remains firm in its position not to negotiate with cybercriminals.” This fits in with the recommendations of IT security experts, who, for example in an open letter, described the payment of ransom after ransomware attack as the root of all evil.
Clean-up work in progress
Desfa explains that it is investigating the causes of the attack and has called in several technical experts to help. She also worked to get the systems back up and running as quickly as possible. To protect the partners, the company has deactivated most of the IT systems and is putting them back into operation bit by bit.
Furthermore, the company informed the relevant authorities and organizations. It is working closely with the Ministry of Digital Administration, the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, the Cyber Crime Unit of the Hellenic Police, the General Staff of the Hellenic National Defense and the Ministry of Environment and Energy and the Regulator of Energy to minimize and resolve the impact.
Desfa is the operator and owner of the approximately 1,500 km long Greek natural gas network. This also includes the only LNG terminal in Greece to date. This is intended to ensure the supply of southern Europe in the current gas crisis due to the uncertainties in the supply of Russian gas and the planned move away from Russia as a supplier.
