Pemex says operations normal after cyberattack

Mexico's state-owned Pemex said its technology operations are back to normal after a cyberattack affected about 5pc of its computers starting on 10 November.

"The company was the subject of cyber attack attempts that were neutralized in a timely manner," Pemex said.

The attack slowed issuing of invoices for Pemex's wholesale fuel buyers and the delivery of fuel from racks and storage centers to retail stations over the weekend, some fuel retailers said.

Parts of Pemex's website also saw temporary outages.

Pemex did not verify the nature of the attack. Twitter users claiming to be Pemex workers have posted pictures of their computer screens, and a dialogue box requiring a key to recover information. This would indicate that the attack could be ransomware, which usually restricts access to parts of a system in exchange for a payment.

Pemex says it frequently rebuffs attacks on its internal network. Pemex reported the highest number of cyber security threats in 2018 out of all Mexican government entities, with 600,000 attempted attacks each month, or 7.2mn in a year, according to a government report.

Energy companies internationally, both state of private sector, have reported near constant attacks by cyber threats in recent years.

Mexico's government did not approve Ps8.3bn($432mn) in technology-specific funding requests from Pemex in its consolidated 2019 budget. This included Ps4.379bn to buy and update computer programs to support production activities, Ps3.762bn for new hardware and Ps215mn to replace obsolete hardware and for network and related improvements for new business needs. Technology spending can also be included in unit-specific budgets.

By Sergio Meana