Halliburton Posts $35 Million in Losses Following Ransomware Attack
Date:
November 11, 2024
Halliburton, a global energy services giant, reported a $35 million loss after an August ransomware attack forced the company to shut down IT systems and disconnect clients temporarily.
Operating across 70 countries with 48,000 employees, Halliburton had revenues exceeding $23 billion in recent years. In an August 23, 2024, SEC filing, the company disclosed the breach, explaining that an unauthorized party had accessed its network.
In response, Halliburton took parts of its IT infrastructure offline, limiting operational disruption and leading to client disconnections, Bleeping Computer reports.
Shortly after, it was revealed that the RansomHub ransomware group was responsible for the attack, stealing sensitive company data. However, the specific details of the data stolen are still under investigation.
Despite the breach, Halliburton stated that it anticipated no material financial impact from the event. In the company’s third-quarter report, CEO Jeff Miller confirmed a minor impact on earnings per share, attributing only $0.02 per share to the breach and Gulf of Mexico storms.
Halliburton expects no change in its annual cash flow projections and plans to accelerate shareholder returns in Q4. However, should the stolen data be leaked or sold, Halliburton could face additional costs from potential legal repercussions.
Takeaway: The rise in class action lawsuits linked to data exfiltration in ransomware incidents has surged dramatically over the past two years. This evolving threat has escalated liability risks, especially for C-suite executives and boards of directors.
Data theft, especially involving regulated information and intellectual property, can lead to severe long-term repercussions, including regulatory fines, legal liabilities, and damage to brand reputation and customer trust.
Modern ransomware attacks have evolved beyond simply encrypting files. Ransomware operators now routinely exfiltrate data before deploying encryption, using the threat of releasing or selling stolen information to increase leverage.
This puts organizations at heightened risk, as data exposure carries additional legal and regulatory challenges—even if a company can restore systems without paying a ransom.
Effective ransomware defense requires early detection, aiming to intercept threats before the ransomware payload is deployed. Data exfiltration has become a standard tactic, with some cybercriminals focusing solely on data theft and extortion rather than encryption.
Consequently, robust detection and response capabilities, along with adherence to data breach notification laws, are essential to mitigate both direct and indirect impacts.
Organizations must adopt a proactive approach to ransomware defense, focusing on early-stage threat mitigation to prevent data exfiltration and avoid costly regulatory and legal consequences.
Prioritizing resilience helps minimize operational disruptions, while safeguarding sensitive data from the outset reduces the potential for damaging fallout.
Halcyon.ai eliminates the business impact of ransomware, drastically reduces downtime, prevents data exfiltration, and enables organizations to quickly and easily recover from attacks without paying ransoms or relying on backups – talk to a Halcyon expert today to find out more. Halcyon also publishes a quarterly RaaS and extortion group reference guide, Power Rankings: Ransomware Malicious Quartile.
