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Cyber Attack Knocks Offline Saudi Aramco
wiredmikey writes "Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's national oil company and the largest oil company in the world, confirmed that is has been hit by a cyber attack that resulted in malware infecting user workstations and forcing IT to kill the company's connection to the outside world. '..An official at Saudi Aramco confirmed that the company has isolated all its electronic systems from outside access as an early precautionary measure that was taken following a sudden disruption that affected some of the sectors of its electronic network,' the company wrote in a statement. This incident follows an attack on systems at the National Iranian Oil Company back in April, when a virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island oil terminal, which also resulted in the company taking its systems offline. In response to continued cyber attacks against its networks and facilities, Iran earlier this month said it plans to move key ministries and state bodies off the public Internet to protect them from such attacks."
When I was a Jr IT Admin, and our systems got infected a some Malware, or a worm we didn't call it a cyber attack, we just bitched about it and fixed the problem and wondered who the hell opened the attachment they got in their email.
Any idea which Microsoft Windows vulnerability was exploited?
Is it wrong that I feel like cheering?
They don't want us to be able to see scantily clad women. That makes me pissed off right there.
This is so Jurassic Park.
That is all.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Iran earlier this month said it plans to move key ministries and state bodies off the public Internet to protect them from such attacks
One wonders why they were on the internet (public or otherwise) to begin with.
Be seeing you...
...I thought of battlefield 3 and ripping through there in a littlebird heli? :D :\
not just oil
War between heavily-armed sectarian enemies who hate each other even more than they hate the dirty kuffar West. That's what I call a self-cleaning oven.
*gets popcorn*
This is gonna be *FUN*
They aseume it got in through official channels rather than myriad censor-bypassing routes, including smart phone tethering.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
why would the jews and americans attack americas number one ally in the middle east?
I would bet crooked (as if there are any other kind) daytraders.
1. Buy up oil futures.
2. Release your malware and let the news cycle gin up oil prices.
3. Profit!!
Someone has a new IT infrastructure they want to sell to the Saudis.
First create the demand with the 'cyber attack', then be ready to supply the solution.
Should be able to charge a huge price tag.
this attack only affected workstations, so its safe to assume it wasnt taylored specifically to the corporation like say stuxnet.
more importantly, who seriously cares. it seems like every other article about malware or worms is ginned up as a cyber attack or cyber terrorism or some other buzzword invented by the DoD or defense contractors to gin up support for defense spending. If we're keeping score, the siberian pipeline attack by the CIA in 1982 is when "cyber" attacks first started. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_pipeline_sabotage
Good people go to bed earlier.
i have a simple question. why are these systems - and systems like them in the USA such as power grid systems - attached to the world-wide internet in the first place? surely people understand that critical systems must be physically isolated, yes? they do have two computers, one on each side of the room, yes? one set of computers controls the critical hardware, and the other set is for administrative purposes, to do email, surf for porn when the staff are bored and so on, yes? do these people in these companies, whether they be in iran, iraq, saudi arabia or the USA, not understand basic security procedures for running mission-critical systems??
Interesting side effects may come from this. These are very targeted and sophisticated attacks, the hardest to defend against. Countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia could become the security leaders in the world simply from having to defend themselves against the best of the best.
One thing China is very good at is not showing their hand too early. They plan long term, infiltrate, bide their time and strike when everything is perfect, leaving their targets unprepared (scary, huh?). This is in contrast to whoever is attacking Iran and Saudi, really they're just making them stronger by helping them build their skills, defenses, and techniques.
No way the US or Israel would strike at the jugular of the world's economy, it doesn't make sense. I'd guess Iran (make some countries drop the embargo), "wreck their shit" anarchists (this is a great way to wreck shit) or eco-terrorists (reduce CO2 emissions and give the world a taste of what will happen when the oil runs out).
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I used to work for a process controls company. Everything migrated from purpose-built embedded code and machines to COTS hardware to "save money."
The result was that the system became 5 times more expensive, 10 times more complicated, and 20 times more failure-prone.
Instead of buying a $1000 control board that was built for its special purpose, our customers instead had to buy a $10,000 PC running Windows, preinstalled with the McAfee Virus (which caused plenty of problems of its own with real-time control), a $4000 communications board to interface with the control network, and another $25,000 worth of special software to duct-tape the control platform to the new "cheaper" commercial-off-the-shelf control master.
Of course, doing this enabled them to use "commodity talent" rather than actual seasoned hardware engineers, so of course some VP got his huge bonus for moving jobs overseas. And, the customers suffered.
Cyber Attack Knocks Offline Saudi Aramco
I had to read that headline three times before I understood what the author intended.
Why? Because of his misuse of the word "offline". He meant to write "off line".
Great, oil prices will skyrocket now.