IBM Vet Leads Company Behind Pipeline System Shut by Attack

(Bloomberg) -- An obscure, private equity-backed company in Massachusetts is behind the system targeted by a cyberattack that halted electronic communications for the operators thousands of miles of natural gas pipeline in the U.S.

Here are three things to know about Energy Services Group LLC and its business unit Latitude Technologies.

1. Small Company, Big Reach

Though Energy Services Group has between 51 and 200 employees, according to its LinkedIn page, it has more than 300 energy clients serving over 9 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in the U.S., Canada and Japan, including in 22 U.S. states. The company wasn't ready to make a statement or discuss the details of the service disruption yet, Carla Roddy, marketing director at Energy Services Group, said in a brief interview at the company's headquarters in Norwell, Massachusetts.

Energy Services unit Latitude Technologies, which provides the communications system hobbled by the cyberattack, is a member of the North American Energy Standards Board, an industry group that helps set standards for the gas and power markets.

Latitude is “very active in all of our cybersecurity work,” Rae McQuade, the Houston-based board's president, said by phone Tuesday. The company is “very well known in the industry, they have a lot of clients, they are very well respected.”

2. Tech Veteran CEO

Energy Services Group's chief executive officer is Philip Galati, who previously held roles at International Business Machines Corp., Dell Inc. and Trillium Software. Other Energy Services Group executives have experience in the computer software and hardware industries, with stints at companies including Oracle Corp. and Hewlett-Packard.

3. Private Equity Funding

In 2016, the company received an unspecified “growth equity investment” from Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity firm based in Menlo Park, California. Accel-KKR, founded in 2000 as a partnership between Accel Partners and KKR & Co. but now operating independently, has about $4.3 billion in capital commitments.

--With assistance from Naureen S. Malik and Brian K. Sullivan

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Buurma in New York at cbuurma1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net, Christine Buurma, Joe Carroll

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