FBI confirms two Texas-bound oil tankers hit by hackers who disabled coms and put the engines into overdrive — and Iran is possibly to blame

The FBI and US Coast Guard have confirmed that two oil tankers bound for Texas were targeted by hackers, disabling communication systems and causing the engines to enter overdrive. The first vessel, VL Prosperity, was a Liberian crude oil tanker carrying 2.3 million barrels of oil. The tanker, on a 25-day journey from Egypt to Galveston, Texas, encountered issues during its passage.

The Coast Guard boarded the ship after receiving indications of a foreign cyber compromise. The second tanker, Kohaku, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, was headed to Texas to load liquefied petroleum gas. It is currently located near Malta. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Iranian media claimed they were a message from Iran's "Resistance Front" to the United States and the Middle East.

The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported that the attackers infiltrated engine-room systems, altered engine cooling flow, increased engine speed, and disabled fuel and oil tank systems.