According to a report on the U.S. Military News website on June 24, a new report just released showed that a Russian hacker group may have launched a cyber attack on the industrial control system of a liquefied natural gas plant in Texas, leading to its death. An explosion occurred on June 8. Joseph M. Weiss, an international control system network security expert, raised the same question in his blog on June 21. The exploding Freeport LNG liquefied natural gas plant has denied claims that a cyber attack caused the incident. If we do not take into account the fact that these two experts deliberately guided public opinion and framed the Russian government, then the cyber attack on the natural gas plant explosion accident is still very convincing.
On June 8, an explosion occurred at the Freeport LNG liquefaction plant and export terminal in Quintana Island, Texas, and damaged production facilities. The Freeport, Texas, LNG export facility said it could take 90 days to resume partial operations at the plant, and that it would not reach full capacity until the end of 2022. The incident was caused by "overpressure and rupture in a segment of the LNG transmission pipeline, which resulted in rapid flashing of the LNG and the release and ignition of a natural gas vapor cloud," according to a June 14 statement from the company. The company did not explain why the security system was not activated.
Recently, preliminary investigation showed that the incident was due to overpressure and rupture of a section of the LNG transmission pipeline, which caused rapid flashing of liquefied natural gas and the release and ignition of the natural gas vapor cloud. It's unclear why the company's safety mechanisms failed to prevent the explosion, though experts speculate the cyberattack may have shut down the gas facility's industrial safety controls. Experts say that ICS malware like TRITON, similar to the Russian-related APT group XENOTIME, has the ability to shut down industrial security controls and cause huge damage to industrial facilities.
According to the US Military News website, on March 24 this year, the US Department of Justice charged four Russian nationals suspected of using TRITON malware in cyber attacks on behalf of the Russian government from 2012 to 2018. On the same day, the FBI issued an advisory warning that the TRITON malware tool still poses a significant threat to industrial systems around the world. Washington Times National security writer Rogan confirmed that the Texas LNG facility explosion is consistent with hacking activities by APT groups such as XENOTIME. Rogan then added that the company does have operational technology/industrial control system network detection systems. However, Freeport LNG denied that cyber attacks were the root cause of the incident. "Unless Freeport LNG has properly deployed OT/ICS network detection systems and completed a forensic investigation, a cyberattack cannot be ruled out," Rogan countered.
Two other sources who spoke to Rogan said that during the Russian intrusion into Ukraine, a cyber unit of Russia's GRU military intelligence service conducted a target reconnaissance operation against Freeport LNG.
A fire broke out in a Russian oil refinery
According to Singapore " Lianhe Zaobao " website reported on the 22nd, a fire broke out in a Russian oil refinery only 8 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border. Reports indicate that a drone flew over the refinery before the incident. The report quoted Reuters reported that a picture circulated on social media showed that after a drone flew towards the Novosekhtinsk oil refinery in Russia on the 22nd, a cloud of flames and black smoke shot straight into the sky. Tass news agency quoted local government sources as saying that the drone hit a heat exchange device at the refinery.
reported that Reuters could not verify the reports or the videos on social media, and a spokesman for the refinery did not respond to Reuters' inquiries. In addition, Interfax reported that the local emergency services said that the fire had been extinguished and no one was injured. According to the report, the refinery has a production capacity of up to 7.5 million tons per year. The refinery began operations in 2009 and is one of the few built in Russia over the past few decades. The report pointed out that this is the second oil inventory explosion in Russia since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.At the end of April this year, an oil storage facility also exploded in Bryansk, 154 kilometers northeast of the border between Russia and Ukraine. According to reports, Russia is investigating the cause of the refinery explosion.
According to a report by the Russian Satellite News Agency on the 22nd, Golubev, the governor of Russia’s Rostov Region, said that the fire at the Novosekhtinsk refinery may have been caused by a drone attack. According to reports, a fire broke out at the Novosekhtinsk refinery in the early morning of June 22 and was extinguished about an hour and a half later. Golubev wrote on the "Telegram" social platform: "I just heard a report on the fire fighting situation at the Novosekhtinsk refinery. There is a theory that the fire was caused by a drone attack on the factory's technical equipment. "Two drone fragments were found in the factory area." The report pointed out that the refinery is the largest petroleum product supplier in southern Russia.
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