Coast Guard personnel and FBI agents boarded a Texas-bound commercial oil tanker last month before it could arrive at a port after determining the ship’s network may have been compromised by a foreign actor as it was crossing the Atlantic, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 21, a specialized team of Coast Guard law-enforcement personnel, a vessel inspector, Coast Guard Cyber Protection Team members and FBI Cyber Action Team operators boarded an inbound foreign-flagged commercial vessel, the Coast Guard said. The team examined both the vessel’s operational technology and information-technology systems, working with the crew and the ship’s corporate operators to oust the threat.<\/p>\n
“Currently, there are no reports of operational disruptions, vessel instability, physical danger to crews, or environmental impacts,” the Coast Guard said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has so far not attributed the potential breach to a specific actor, but Iranian state media amplified the story in the weeks following the breach.<\/p>\n
The Coast Guard did not identify the ship, but the vessel named in Iranian reports appears to be the VL Prosperity, a 333-meter Liberian-flagged very large crude carrier capable of carrying roughly 2.3 million barrels of oil. Public vessel data shows it was bound for Galveston, Texas, at the time.<\/p>\n
Unconfirmed reports of the attack first surfaced publicly after the ship passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, between Spain and Morocco.<\/p>\n
On Aug. 20, Iran’s Mehr News Agency reported that VL Prosperity had been attacked on Aug. 7 while sailing from Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal toward the United States, losing communications for 30 hours. Mehr, citing an unnamed crew member, alleged that the attackers penetrated engine-room systems, reduced engine cooling flow, increased engine speed and interfered with fuel and lubricating-oil systems.<\/p>\n