Report: Rosneft says hackers might target servers with court info

MOSCOW, Jun 28 (PRIME) -- Hackers might target servers of Russian oil major Rosneft where it could keep the data important for ongoing court hearings, in which the company is taking part, Rosneft’s press secretary Mikhail Leontyev said on Wednesday, as cited by the portal BFM.RU.

“If we have a look at rational motives, which hackers might have, we cannot ignore the fact that it would be a rational motive to ‘kill’ computers of (Rosneft’s unit, oil company) Bashneft, which contain a huge amount of information about Bashneft’s activities in the period of its being owned by previous shareholders,” Leontyev said.

Rosneft and Bashneft filed a 170.6 billion ruble lawsuit against Bashneft’s former owner, multi-industry holding Sistema. On Tuesday, the Arbitration Court of the republic of Bashkortostan seized 185 billion rubles worth of Sistema’s assets under the case.

On Monday, Sistema received an arrest order for a 31.76% stake in mobile operator MTS, 100% in healthcare company Medsi, and 90.5% in Bashkir Power Grid Company. Sistema said it planned to contest the move.

Rosneft’s servers were hit on Tuesday by a strong hacker assault, and the company asked law enforcement entities for help. Official Web sites of Rosneft and Bashneft were unavailable.

“We said that it’s not our function, and we hope specialists, law enforcement entities will investigate the case. We don’t want to think that it’s tied to our legal processes, despite an amazing synchronization,” Leontyev said.

(58.8843 rubles – U.S. $1)

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