Halliburton offers further glimpse into August computer hack

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Halliburton, the Houston-based oilfield services giant, disclosed a few more details about the computer hack it suffered in late August. In a Sept. 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Halliburton confirmed that some corporate information had been taken from its computer systems, though it did not go into detail about the nature or subject of the purloined data. “The incident has caused disruptions and limitation of access to portions of the Company’s business applications supporting aspects of the Company’s operations and corporate functions,” it said in the filing. “The Company believes the unauthorized third party accessed and exfiltrated information from the Company’s systems. The Company is evaluating the nature and scope of the information, and what notifications are required.”

The company confirmed earlier reporting of the attack in a Aug. 21 SEC filing and said it had notified authorities of the breach. “When the Company learned of the issue, the Company activated its cybersecurity response plan and launched an investigation internally with the support of external advisors to assess and remediate the unauthorized activity,” it said. “The Company’s response efforts included proactively taking certain systems offline to help protect them and notifying law enforcement. The Company’s ongoing investigation and response include restoration of its systems and assessment of materiality.” A source of the breach has not been identified. While the company said it had incurred expenses related to the attack, it said in the most recent filing that the incident “has not had, and is not reasonably likely to have, a material impact on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.”