Oil and Gas Sector Prone to Cyber Attack, Sylva Warns

Kingsley Nwezeh

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, yesterday raised the alarm that the oil and gas industry is prone to cyber-attack.

He, therefore, called on the Nigerian defence sector to avail the federal government recommendations on how the country could prepare in the event of a cyber-attack on the oil and gas sector.

But the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd), said the federal government was leveraging on digital technology for enhanced national security architecture.

Sylva, who spoke at the National Defence College, Abuja, while delivering the graduation lecture of Course 29 of the college, said if the attack was not quickly prevented, it may lead to distribution challenges and panic-buying as was witnessed in the United States recently.

Speaking on the lecture titled: ‘Enhancing Digital Technology in the Oil and Gas Sector of Nigeria for National Development’, the minister explained that panic-buying usually leads to drained supplies at thousands of gas stations.

Sylva said: “The Saudi Aramco case should be instructive to operators in the industry. An employee of Saudi Aramco with privileged access had on August 15, 2012, opened a scam email in an intentional act of sabotage involving the release of a virus that destroyed the entire computer system of the organisation in hours.

“There is also a recent case in the United States involving the largest fuel pipeline in the country, whose operations were shut down for nearly a week after a cyber-attack.

“The attack caused distribution problems in the US and panic-buying that drained supplies at thousands of gas stations.”

The minister, however, said promoting digital transformation in the country’s oil and gas industry would boost profitability and efficiency, adding that closing the digital gap would help lessen hindrances to efficient production and improve process optimisation in the country’s oil and gas industry.

He maintained that in order to enhance digital technology, there should be a deliberate effort to build resilience and sustainability in the oil and gas infrastructure, stressing that such would protect the country’s key economic assets from cyber-attacks and other web-based criminalities.

Sylva called for increased funding for the sector to ensure effective development, promotion, and implementation of petroleum technology and manpower expansion policies through research and training.

In his remarks, the Minister of Defence, Magashi, said the federal government was leveraging digital technology for enhanced national security architecture.

He assured Nigerians that the overall interest of the government under the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was focused on enhancing security of lives and property of the citizenry.

He gave the assurances that the ongoing military campaigns in some parts of the country against terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and militancy were on course, adding that Nigerians needed to appreciate the effort of the President Buhari to emplace collective security.

He said: “The support of Nigerians and friendly nations are germane to ending the country’s internal security challenges,” pointing out that the government relied heavily on digital technology for safe and secure environment, especially in this period of the fourth global industrial revolution.

The defence minister, who placed it on record that provision of security was a continuum, thanked the leadership of the National Defence College under the leadership of Rear Admiral Oladele Bamidele Daji for the choice of the topic of the lecture.

On his part, the NDC Commandant, Rear Admiral Oladele Daji, said technology had assumed a prominent place among the factors that created nexus between national security and development.

Daji said the exponential pace in the advancement of technology globally was a critical factor in determining the strength of the country in measuring security and sustainable development indices.

He said it was in cognisance of this reality that the college adopted the theme: ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution and National Development in Nigeria’, for Course 29.