FBI and Coast Guard boarded oil tankers after hackers seized ship systems

FBI and Coast Guard board two tankers

Federal cybersecurity personnel physically boarded two oil tankers heading toward the United States last month after hackers broke into the ships' networks and, on at least one of them, reportedly gained control of navigation, propulsion and cargo systems. According to TechCrunch, teams from the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard went aboard the vessels in the Gulf of Mexico between August 21 and August 24.

A joint statement from the two agencies, shared with TechCrunch, said the boardings were carried out to verify the integrity of the ships' operational and information technology systems after signs emerged that intruders had reached the networks of both vessels. The Coast Guard published photographs of its staff and FBI agents climbing onto one of the ships, images also shared with CBS News. The statement noted that the captain, the crew and the vessel owner's shore-side staff all cooperated.

The Coast Guard did not respond when TechCrunch asked for comment, including questions about the names of the vessels involved.

What is known about the ships

CBS News confirmed that one of the tankers is the VL Prosperity, a 333-meter vessel capable of carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil. Tracking data from VesselFinder, cited by TechCrunch, shows the tanker currently positioned in the Gulf of Mexico.

Drawing on Iranian media reports, CBS said the compromise of that ship began on August 7 while it was sailing from Egypt toward the United States. The hackers reportedly tampered with the tanker's speed and fuel systems, and the vessel lost communications for more than a full day.

Responsibility for the intrusion has not been established. CBS News reported that U.S. officials are investigating whether Iran was behind it.

A wider pattern of intrusions

TechCrunch situates the incident within a broader wave of Iranian hacking activity that followed the start of the U.S.- and Israel-led war against Tehran, which, according to the outlet's reporting, killed Iran's supreme leader in February. Since then, Iranian-linked hackers have carried out a destructive attack on medical device maker Stryker, breached the mass transit system in Los Angeles, and compromised more than a hundred water facilities across the United States. CISA has described these campaigns as opportunistic in nature.

Outcome of the boardings

According to the joint FBI-Coast Guard statement, no operational disruption, vessel instability, danger to crews or environmental damage was reported in connection with the incident.

Why it matters

Cyber intrusions are usually answered with incident response teams, advisories and sanctions. This one was answered with federal agents boarding ships at sea, making it a rare case of a maritime network compromise producing a physical law-enforcement response.

It also illustrates why shipping is an attractive target. Modern tankers rely on sprawling networks that span the entire vessel, handling navigation, cargo organization and the machinery that keeps a massive ship running. Those systems bridge conventional IT with operational technology, which means a network intrusion can, in the worst case, translate into influence over a moving vessel carrying millions of barrels of oil.

Finally, the episode extends the list of critical infrastructure in scope for nation-state-linked actors beyond power grids, hospitals and water utilities. With attribution still unconfirmed and the U.S. actively investigating a possible Iranian connection, the case suggests that verifying the integrity of onboard systems may become a recurring operational task for the Coast Guard's cyber teams rather than a one-off response.