In case you’re coming to this story without the full context, let me help you with that. Back in June, Petro Canada and their parent company Suncor were pwned by hackers. That partially took down their gas stations for a few days, and has partially crippled them ever since. Here’s a bunch of stories that you can read that will give you the full background:
- Petro Canada Gas Stations And More Are Offline Due To Unspecified Computer Problems…. Have They Been Pwned?
- Confirmed: Petro Canada Parent Company Pwned By Hackers
- The Effects Of Petro Canada’s Parent Company Getting Pwned Continue With No ETA For Resolution
- The Petro Canada Cyberattack Could Cost The Company In Multiple Ways… And Who’s Behind This Cyberattack?
- Petro Canada Claims That You Can Pay Via Credit And Debit Cards Again… But Other Things Are Still Down After Getting Pwned
- Petro Canada Speaks Again About Being Pwned… But Says Nothing Of Substance
Now, about two months after being pwned by hackers, it’s come to my attention that the Petro Canada app is still not working. When users try to log in, they see this:
Having the app in a state where it isn’t working for two months does not inspire confidence to users. And you have to assume that it’s also costing Petro Canada money. Let me give you an example of that. My go to gas stations have always been Esso/Mobil and Petro Canada. And whenever I needed gas, I would go to the closest one. I didn’t really have a preference. Since Petro Canada got pwned, 100% of my gas business goes to Esso/Mobil. And there’s two reasons for that change:
- The Petro Canada app does not work as mentioned above which is a #fail for me as I use this app to pay at the pump via Apple Pay without putting my credit card into the pump or having to interact with the gas station staff. That’s important for me as gas stations have always been a place where your credit card can be cloned. The app always mitigated that possibility. But since the Petro Canada app doesn’t work, there is no mitigation. However over at Esso/Mobil, this isn’t an issue as their app works fine to pay at the pump.
- I don’t trust Petro Canada because they haven’t really provided an update of any sort that gives me the confidence to trust them.
The thing with cyberattacks is that there’s financial and repetitional costs to them the longer that the attack affects the public. Petro Canada has entered a place where their reputation has taken a big hit, and this has to be affecting them financially. And I don’t see a scenario at the moment where this ends positively for them. Now Petro Canada is free to prove me wrong on that front. But as long as the public isn’t able to use their app to do anything from pumping gas into their cars, collect and redeem points and the like, Petro Canada isn’t in a good place.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland Data Leak Just Got Worse Than It Already Is
Posted in Commentary with tags Privacy on August 14, 2023 by itnerdLast week I told you about a data leak involving The Police Service of Northern Ireland where they accidentally published the data on all their staff creating a critical incident in the process. As bad as that is, it just got worse. Here’s the details from Sky News:
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) says it fears its officers could be targeted and intimidated after saying it believes that dissident republicans have data on staff that was accidently leaked by the force last week.
“We are now confident that the workforce dataset is in the hands of dissident republicans,” Chief Constable Simon Byrne said.
“It is therefore a planning assumption that they will use this list to generate fear and uncertainty as well as intimidating or targeting officers and staff.”
And:
Earlier, a redacted version of the leaked document that listed the names of police officers in Northern Ireland was posted on a wall facing a Sinn Fein office in Belfast.
Keep in mind that the peace in Northern Ireland is a recent thing because of the Good Friday accords. Thus this data leak doesn’t exactly help this situation which has not been in a good place for a couple of years now. This this situation illustrates that data breaches don’t just have a financial and repetitional impact, they also have a life threatening impact as is illustrated here.
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