It began like so many incidents in Oil and Gas, with silence. A refinery’s SCADA systems showed nothing unusual. Operators saw normal pressure readings, valves in expected positions, pumps running smoothly. Yet something felt off. Hours later, an unexplained surge rattled an entire section of the pipeline. Production slowed, confidence collapsed, and board members demanded answers. The engineers pointed to wear and tear. The auditors pointed to certificates. But beneath the surface, the truth was darker: a decades old control system had become the perfect hiding place for attackers. These ghosts, forgotten machines, legacy software, outdated protocols, haunt critical infrastructure around the world. They were built long before cyber threats were part of the equation. They cannot be patched, they cannot be easily replaced, and they remain invisible to most modern monitoring. And yet they are still running the energy lifelines of entire nations.
Oil & Gas
Every industry struggles with legacy technology, but in Oil and Gas the stakes are higher.
Pipelines, refineries, offshore rigs, these systems are engineered to last decades. The same PLCs and SCADA networks that controlled production in the 1990s are still connected today, often linked to cloud dashboards, vendor APIs, and remote maintenance tools that did not exist when the equipment was designed.
To a C suite executive, the risk is reputational and financial: a breach that halts output for a single day can cost tens of millions. To technical staff, the risk is operational: the inability to monitor, patch, or defend systems that were never built with security in mind.
A legacy system does not just age. It accumulates risk, year by year, until one incident can ripple through global markets.
Audits certify processes, not vulnerabilities. Certificates may line a lobby wall, but attackers do not care.
Many legacy systems run on unsupported software. A patch may not exist, or applying one risks breaking production.
OT networks often assume trust between devices. If attackers gain entry, lateral movement is trivial.
Attacks on oil pipelines are not just sabotage. They are bargaining chips, moving global markets and reshaping contracts.
The fear is not just downtime.
Cybersecurity in Oil and Gas is not only about keeping rigs online. It is about credibility. When a pipeline fails, investors do not ask if it was wear and tear or malware. They only see disruption, volatility, and leadership on the defensive.
The fear is not just downtime. It is uncertainty, shareholders, regulators, and partners wondering if your systems are truly under control.
The lesson is clear: you cannot afford to fight the ghosts reactively. They must be contained before they rise.
At Alexsta, we specialise in industries where legacy and modern systems collide. Our approach combines technical precision with board level clarity, so both executives and engineers know that even the oldest systems are under watch.
Forensic evaluations of legacy SCADA and ICS networks. Mapping of shadow assets, forgotten vendor links, and undocumented endpoints. Risk analysis aligned with MITRE ATT&CK for ICS, translated into board ready metrics.
Segmentation strategies to isolate legacy systems without halting production. Protocol whitelisting and OT tuned intrusion detection. Vendor access controls that enforce least privilege and monitor every connection. Executive playbooks for balancing uptime with cyber resilience.
Incident response plans designed for hybrid OT and IT environments. Tabletop simulations with plant managers and executives, preparing for sabotage scenarios. Evidence based reporting for regulators and insurers, ensuring accountability is clear.
The next Oil and Gas breach may not be caused by cutting edge exploits. It will come from technology older than your youngest engineer, still humming quietly in the background, invisible until it fails.
Investors will not care how old the equipment is. Regulators will not excuse the absence of patches. Partners will not forgive unexplained silence.
The ghosts in your pipelines are real. They cannot be ignored, and they cannot be wished away. They can only be contained, managed, and monitored with vigilance.
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