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Destructive Hacks Strike Saudi Arabia, Posing Challenge to Trump (bloomberg.com)
State-sponsored hackers have conducted a series of destructive attacks on Saudi Arabia over the last two weeks, erasing data and wreaking havoc in the computer banks of the agency running the country's airports and hitting five additional targets, according to two people familiar with an investigation into the breach. From a report on Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia said after inquiries from Bloomberg News that "several" government agencies were targeted in attacks that came from outside the kingdom, according to state media. Although a probe by Saudi authorities is still in its early stages, the people said digital evidence suggests the attacks emanated from Iran. That could present President-elect Donald Trump with a major national security challenge as he steps into the Oval Office. The use of offensive cyber weapons by a nation is relatively rare and the scale of the latest attacks could trigger a tit-for-tat cyber war in a region where capabilities have mushroomed ever since an attack on Saudi Aramco in 2012.
He campaigned on a platform of isolationism. Why would he care if two countries on the other side of the world are hacking each other?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
So Obama's already quit?
Is Saudi Arabia's problem ours now? We pretty unceremoniously kicked them to the curb when we signed that deal with Iran, you know.
Computer banks XD
All blinking lights, booping sounds, and spinning reel to reel tape drives no doubt.
"have mushroomed"
Don't they mean, "will mushroom"? As in nukes?
Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people.
He campaigned on a platform of isolationism. Why would he care if two countries on the other side of the world are hacking each other?
I have a better question:
Why does this concern *us*?
Is there an actual tech issue here, or is it just another chance to get a dig in on Trump?
Are we to consider how Trump would react to every small and subtle world news item until he takes office?
Could we at least wait until he makes some sort of statement?
Xcelunt!
I don't know if this is Slashdot trolling but these Trump articles need to stop, its getting ridiculous. A better headline would be "Saudi and Iran in cyber shitfight". Trying to shoehorn this into a Donald angle is an overreach.
This effort to put Trump into every headline is just giving him more publicity
"We don't have a clue who did it. Could've been Iran; could've been some bored skiddy; could've been that guy abdul down the mosque who looks at me funny, we don't have a clue but one thing we know is we don't like Iran so we'll blame them"
The Trump connection here is lame. For one thing, it's another month and a half before Trump takes office, and this will have blown over by then. For another, it wasn't Trump who was threatening to go to war over cyber attacks - that was Clinton. But beyond that, the US doesn't have some kind of Cyber Mutual Defense treaty with KSA. This is a challenge for the king of that country - the US isn't obligated to do anything.
This should read "Posing a challenge to Obama." You know, the guy who's still President?
There's simply nothing there to concern the USA or Trump. The Saudis and the Iranians are always bickering, and neither side is even moderately civilized. When two sets of primitive stoneage barbarians bicker, there's simply no reason for civilization to intervene from over the horizon. About the most productive thing the west could do here is grab the men who lead both countries, give them sex change operations, and parachute them into some Taliban ruled areas where they could enjoy the true joys of the purity of Islam.
Sadly, the western world would need to intervene should Iran actually physically threaten the house of Saud since the world is so addicted to Saudi oil....but the Saudis have never been sufficiently decent enough for anybody to WANT to help them. If the US and its allies had more pragmatic energy policies (i.e. full energy portfolios that included oil,gas,coal,geothermal,solar,wind, etc rather than either short-sighted narrow portfolios like "all natural gas" or boutique portfolios like just wind and solar) then the whole world could just sit back and fire-up the popcorn and enjoy the barbarians slugging it out.
Nobody likes the Saudis or Iranians, who do NOTHING to become even remotely likeable....they just happen to be sitting atop one of the planet's great resources, which makes them sort of temporarily necessary evils.
So serious we'll just wait 2 months to deal with it.
So you're saying Obama is doing nothing for 60 days about security?
Isn't it funny how these "hacks" always magically originate from the US's favoritr enemies? Russia, Syria, North Korea, and Iran.
Obviously an Iranian attack because no hacker has heard of a proxy.
Should really be "President Elect Trump" or "Mr. Trump" at this point.
I'm a liberal who voted against Trump but respect the office.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Our pseudo president elect, who is a real idiot, will never have a good idea about what to do about anything. The Trumpenstein monster can cause more harm by its ignorance and sloth than any dedicated enemy could ever cause. It loves war as it has said so. An all out nuclear war between Iraq and Iran might seem like a good thing to watch on TV by Trumpenstein if he isn't busy molesting a 13 year old girl again.
US pulled stuxnet on Iran, and so has little room to lecture them on such.
Table-ized A.I.
Simply throw Trump's name in to a story at random...that's what news is about these days.
'Cat stuck in a tree. Trump. Fire Department rescues cat'...that would get tonnes of clicks.
We've known for years that Iran's leadership is all about "death to America". The attack on Saudi Arabia shows that they CAN perform significant cyber* attacks. They can do damage though cyber, and they want to attack the USA. Means and motive. We've damn sure given them the opportunity - our IT security is crap.
Additionally, with Iran (and China) actively using these as offensive weapons, the odds are very good that other countries will rush to improve and enlarge each of their cyberwarfare capabilities. In other words, it's yet another neon sign warning that cyber is truly becoming a military branch now, an important means of warfare. For Naval warfare, for example, the US Navy is far superior to any other naval force; for cyber warfare, we're not nearly so dominant. The president-elect (and commander-in-chief) had better address this.
* Yes, "cyber" is an anachronism, EXCEPT when it comes to cybersecurity / cyberwarfare. So before you post "who calls it 'cyber' anymore?", the US military and defense and security sectors call it cyber. That's the term that's used.
I would have expected Al-Qaeda doing something like this, not somebody from Iran. If it really was Iran-originating attack (enthusiastic university students) , the reason might be the war in Yemen. But then the other allies in the coalition should have been attacked too. ISIS is another one who really have a motive of staging false flag attacks in order to weaken their opponents in Syria.
What the hell is a cyber weapon? Are they using some laptop that any other hacker can't use because it's so big or expensive only a government can afford it? And what does Trump have to do with this story, unless the Saudi's recently got annexed by the US without anyone knowing about it, last thing I knew they were the ones funding Bin Laden.
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Mod this one up. It's a intra-Islamic as well as a racial war playing itself out as a battle b/w 2 countries - one a Sunni Arab country vs a Shia Iranian country. The only reason the former has more support is that there are some 22 Sunni Arab countries out there, vs just 1 country that is both Shia and Iranian
Why the "f" is Trump even mentioned!?!
Obama is President! WTF is HE doing about it right now!?!
What idiot brought Trump into this?
"Computer Banks"
Quick! Someone call the Vulcan Science Academy!
Why help them?
They've been running a price war to deliberately drive US small oil producers out of business and the ideals of that Kingdom are even more opposed to those of the USA than what the Iranians have.
Not to mention that 9/11 was due to people who were pissed off about US involvement in Saudi Arabia.
We are getting nothing but pain from that Kingdom.
Perhaps you should first learn that Iran is not Afghanistan, then try again?
"But NO ONE ever imagined they'd use a PROXY to launch a cyber attack..."
"We don't want the smoking gun to be the MUSHROOM STYLE of news management..."
"They hate us for our weak default passwords..."
"Numerous sources tell us that the Iranians are moving, not just documents and hard drives, but WEAPONS OF MASS DELUSION to keep them from being found by people who aren't even looking..."
"'We're too great a nation to allow the EVILDOERS to be the SOLE REASON for launching the Project for the New American Century..."
Why doesn't our sitting president stand up to these blathering Trump headlines?
HEADLINE: " ~X~ ( poses challenge to | is threatened by | will prove risky during | unaddressed by | looms under | cannot possibly improve under ) ( the racist | the misogynist | the xenophobic | ) Trump ( cabinet picks | Administration )"
HEADLINE, DECODED: "~X~ !! MADE YOU LOOK !! Trump won HARDY HAR HAR !!"
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Soviets also invaded Iran and tried occupy it afterwards . "After the war ended, the British withdrew but Soviet troops stationed in northwestern Iran not only refused to withdraw but also supporting a revolt that led to the creation of ephemeral states separatist and pro-Soviet in Iranian Azerbaijan in late 1945: the Peopleâ(TM)s Government of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Mahabad. Both are Soviet puppet governments. This triggered the Iranian-Soviet crisis, Soviet troops withdraw from Iran in May 1946 after receiving a promise of oil concessions. Without Soviet troops to protect them, the Soviet republics of the North collapsed and the oil concessions were revoked. This is the context of Iranâ(TM)s occupation by foreign troops has been writing the Persian anthem EyIran in 1946." through 1946. You need to learn more history.
i dont understant why dont the saudis and irani governments just pray and let Allahs will do its thing ?
By hacking each other and building their military they are showing hte world they dont trust Allah...
Deart slashdot, do you have to repeat this cyberbullshit on this technology forum?
Nobody causes more damage to the Middle East than the USA. If it says Iran launched a cyber attack against SA, then it was most likely the USA (NSA or the Pentagon) doing it, via compromised machines in Iran, to make it look like Iran.
Attacking another country's machines directly from your own country, is like breaking in and leaving a business card behind. It's so stupid not even the Americans would do it.
Additionally, with Iran (and China) actively using these as offensive weapons, the odds are very good that other countries will rush to improve and enlarge each of their cyberwarfare capabilities.
I would expect countries started doing that after the US and Israel used Stuxnet against Iran five years ago, if not before.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
The sex change operations could be performed in Iran as they are almost fully subsidised.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/iran-sex-change-operation_n_1568604.html
I think America is not really addicted to Saudi Oil but to Oil sold in US currency. Its all about keeping the US dollar as the worlds reserve currency.
https://www.quora.com/Currencies/What-is-the-economics-behind-printing-of-currency/answer/Nitin-Gupta-14?srid=SY0&share=1
I think China likes the Iranians as they are part of China's New Silk Road. Maybe like is a bit strong. They currently have similar interests.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/why-china-is-building-a-new-silk-road/
I am beginning to have a small amount of respect for the Iranians. Recent history has shown that they have been badly treated. There mistake, according to the west, is that they successfully fought back.
I agree with you about the Saudi's though.