Saudi Aramco Reveals Cyber Attack Hit 30,000 Workstations

An anonymous reader writes "Saudi Aramco, the world's biggest oil producer, has resumed operating its main internal computer networks after a virus infected about 30,000 of its workstations in mid-August. The group, calling itself the 'Cutting Sword of Justice,' claimed to have hacked Aramco systems in several countries before sending a virus across 30,000 computers, achieving a 75 percent infection rate of all the company's systems. It refuted suggestions that a nation state was behind the attack."

Comments

android?

[Anonymous Coward]

am I missing something, why is this story tagged Android?

Re:android?

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgot the assange. The /. audience gets a boner every time his name is mentioned.

Re:android?

[Rei]

Yeah, but they'd need to wait until the story falls asleep before they can read it...

Re:android?

[MarkGriz]

Yeah, but they'd need to wait until the story falls asleep before they can read it...

Allegedly

Too much Pron

[arcite]

Memo to Staff: Cut back on the Pron.

Re:Too much Pron

[mjwx]

Memo to Staff:
Cut back on the Pron.

Addendum to memo,

Burka bitches 17 can be found on J drive.

Re:I guess...

[Robert Zenz]

What? They were making up excuses...I though they had dropped that because they figured out that gas needs to be bought anyway.

In all seriousness

[zero.kalvin]

I would rather Saudis get hacked than Iranians. For someone who grew up in the Middle east, Saudi Arabia is much much dangerous than Iran ( regardless of political inclinations ).

Re:In all seriousness

[zero.kalvin]

And I think you missed those Saudi backed Salafist Jihadist ranking foul of that region for a long time. The most dangerous thing in that region is not an Iranian bomb, it is Saudi money.

Re:In all seriousness

[zero.kalvin]

You have three unsupported assumption: 1) That the Iranian are actively building one ( I think they might be, but no proof on that. However, they might want one but this is a different issue ) 2) That they will use it 3) Iran is not a rational player( goes hand in hand with 2) ) Iranian actions since 1979 are reactionary actions ( they are scared from being invaded by the US ), an Iranian bomb would serve the role as an invasion inhibitory weapon. However, if you are going to quote Iranian officials saying that they will erase Israel from the map, you'd be a fool if you do not place it as verbal showcasing intended as something to gather support from Arabic populations. The matter of fact is on the long run Saudi Arabia has been the prime motivator and money supplier of every salafi/Wahabi Jihadist in the world. Yet we turn an eye on their actions because they are our allies ( I wonder why! --wink wink oil--). Iran and Saudi Arabia are both terrorist loving countries, both are bad. It is just that one is much more effective at what they do. And I would love nothing than see a regime change in both of these countries. I guess in the end we are both agreeing to how bad these two countries are, just differing on who is worse. I think in parallel to imposing sanctions on Iran, Saudi Arabia should get its own version of Oil embargo.

Re:In all seriousness

[Atryn]

if you are going to quote Iranian officials saying that they will erase Israel from the map, you'd be a fool if you do not place it as verbal showcasing intended as something to gather support from Arabic populations.

Well, that is another mass stereotyping of "Arabic populations"... But the mere fact that this is perceived as a viable strategy across such a large population (calling for the violent annihilation of another population) kinda makes me lean towards none of "them" having a bomb.

Re:Only One Norway

[ryzvonusef]

No wonder Doctors are so much in demand in the gulf; they are getting so fat that they are getting diabetic!

I have seen kids who were wider than they were tall. And this is not one or two kids, this was a surprising high number (though thankfully not the majority...yet).

I know people say Americans are fat, and they might be, but you need to go to the gulf to see it it's full awful glory. Qatar is especially hit bad (I think in a recent ranking it came number one)

I know people say ""just you wait when the oil runs out" but they mean more towards the terror financing and what not; I genuinely fear for their lives, they are amorphous blob of flesh with NO skills. Things will be bad for them when oil money is not their to grease their slide.

Re:Use Windows, get hosed

[jbmartin6]

And if the company used all Linux workstations, they would have coded up something that ran on that.

Re:Use Windows, get hosed

[symbolset]

The difference between theory and practice is that in theory they're the same, and in practice they're not.

Re:Use Windows, get hosed

[AHuxley]

Whats 30000 Windows in Unix server skill terms?
Like 1 server?