U.S. officials say the FBI and Coast Guard have found that this summer the VLCC "VL Prosperity", fully laden with crude and en route to Galveston, Texas, suffered a cyber intrusion into its digital propulsion-control system. Investigators are still determining how the intruders accessed the system and who is responsible; it is unclear how long access persisted or which functions could be controlled. The FBI says it has found no evidence the incident caused operational disruption, instability, da

U.S. officials say the FBI and Coast Guard have found that this summer the VLCC "VL Prosperity", fully laden with crude and en route to Galveston, Texas, suffered a cyber intrusion into its digital propulsion-control system. Investigators are still determining how the intruders accessed the system and who is responsible; it is unclear how long access persisted or which functions could be controlled. The FBI says it has found no evidence the incident caused operational disruption, instability, danger to crew, or environmental harm. Law enforcement boarded the ship after a loss of communications and suspected network intrusion in late August. As of September, U.S. agencies are tracking cyber threats to nearly 20 vessels worldwide. The rare breach of a ship’s core operating systems has raised U.S. military and intelligence concerns about the potential for remote interference with large tanker operations.