A view of a drilling rig and distant production platform in the Soldado Field off Trinidad's southwest coast, September 10, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/Andrea De Silva)

(Reuters) – Hackers are bombarding the world’s computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption.

This article published by Reuters comes out the same week that researchers at MIT released a report stating the need for better direction of protecting the nation’s electric power infrastructure. I felt this was one of the keenest observations in the article:

“Oil needs to keep on flowing,” said Riemer Brouwer, head of IT security at Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO).

“We have a very strategic position in the global oil and gas market,” he added. “If they could bring down one of the big players in the oil and gas market you can imagine what this will do for the oil price – it would blow the market.”

Hackers could finance their operations by using options markets to bet on the price movements caused by disruptions, Brouwer said.

“So far we haven’t had any major incidents,” he said. “But are we really in control? The answer has to be ‘no’.”

So how secure are our systems really? It’s better to be preventative than to know the answer to that.