A recent surge in cyberattacks worldwide is driving Saudi Arabia towards reviewing local cloud platforms available to industries, especially the oil and gas sector, as the Kingdom looks to increase the number of alternatives present for existing international cloud platforms.
In early May, a ransomware attack hit one of the US’ largest pipelines responsible for carrying 45% of the East Coast’s fuel supplies. The security breach halted the transport of fuel to nearly 50 million consumers for almost a week.
Siemens Energy Saudi Arabia at Siemens Energy Managing Director Mahmoud Sulaimani revealed that the Kingdom is seeking to build resilience and protect against such malicious cyberattacks.
This comes when technological transformation in the country is moving rapidly towards financial inclusion and digitization.
Late May, computer networks at one of the world’s largest meat processing companies, JBS, were hacked, temporarily shutting down some operations in Australia, Canada, and the US, with thousands of workers affected.
“Cyber security is critical to our customers inside Saudi Arabia,” confirmed Sulaimani in a videoconference interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.
“What we do is that we study solutions with each company according to its demands and needs,” he explained, noting that the significance of cybersecurity resilience grows each day globally.
Today, e-piracy comes in different shapes and forms, sometimes fueled by intentions for sabotage and other times driven by hopes of making a profit. Some hackers demand a ransom to release the hostage network.
Corollary, Saudi Aramco, the World Economic Forum (WEF), and Siemens Energy teamed up in launching a cybersecurity resilience program for the oil and gas sector.
The effort followed the cyber-attack on Colonial Pipeline, which held the US mega energy firm at ransom, forcing it to suspend and reduce oil and gas activity for several weeks.
It is noteworthy that the Colonial Pipeline ships gasoline and jet fuel from the Texas Gulf Coast to the country’s East Coast via 5,500 miles (8850 km) of pipelines, carrying 45% of East Coast fuel supplies.
On that matter, Sulaimani refused to give any details but reaffirmed the need for Saudi Arabia to move forward on protecting its networks, given its position as a major oil exporter.
