Shell victim of large-scale data theft

The attackers managed to gain access to the supposedly Accellion FTA server of the energy company. Large files of information shared with the companies it works with have been stolen, according to a Shell spokesperson.

“You can think of the entrepreneurs who work for Shell, but also of the marketing agencies.” Shell is still investigating the information that has been stolen.

It is also not yet known how much data has been leaked and to how many people or companies that data belongs to. According to Shell, the leak in her has been closed, but the company cannot say if the issues have also been resolved at Accellion.

Hit

A few weeks ago, the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) also announced that data had also been leaked to it. NAM is a partnership between Shell and ExxonMobil, and uses the same type of application as at Shell.

In addition, the personal data of 19,000 victims of the earthquake damage caused by the NAM gas extraction have disappeared.

Shell says the number of people or companies whose information has now been released is smaller. “And those affected have been notified.”

Millions of flights

The data applications used by Shell and NAM have caused major problems elsewhere in the world. Thus, the data of 1.6 million residents of the US state Washington flew on such an Accellion server.

This includes information from 1.3 million unemployed people who received an e-mail about it from the authorities. The data system with which the organizations concerned have worked everywhere is according to the website Security.nl twenty years.

Also the Central Bank of New Zealand and the supermarket chain Kroger have been hit by a similar data theft in recent months.