Coast Guard and FBI teams boarded the Texas-bound oil tanker VL Prosperity last month after finding evidence of malicious cyber activity on its systems, Rear Adm. Amy Grable, who commands the Coast Guard’s Cyber Command, told CBS News. The vessel was carrying about 2.3 million barrels of crude oil. The teams spent four days aboard VL Prosperity but found no evidence the ship was unsafe to navigate.
FBI officials also confirmed a second, similar boarding days later involving another oil tanker headed to Texas through the Gulf of Mexico, per Supply Chain Dive. This was one of 40-50 missions the Coast Guard’s Cyber Protection Team has run in the past year, Grable said.
The Coast Guard hasn’t publicly attributed either attack to Iran, but Iranian state media claimed hackers breached the VL Prosperity’s engine room and cut its communications for 30 hours. Rob Lee, CEO of the industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, called the technical details in Iran’s account “spot on” and “very realistic.” A former Coast Guard cyber official, Quinton DuBose, was more skeptical, cautioning that Iranian-linked actors often oversell their own reach and that attribution can take weeks or months.
Grable said $5.4 trillion in commerce moves through US ports each year. Even a short cyber-driven disruption carries outsized cost if a port has to shift to manual operations. “We need everybody to pay attention to this,” she said.
