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Destructive Hacks Strike Saudi Arabia, Posing Challenge to Trump (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the major-hack dept.

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.

19 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Why would this concern Trump? by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry, Barron is on it. He's really good with the cyber.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by Verdatum · · Score: 3, Interesting

      News articles get more clicks when they mention Trump. (I read the article, and I honestly think that could be reason).

    3. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      More like 8%

    4. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by unixisc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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?

      Not just that, unlike previous Republican administrations, he takes a dim view of all of Islam: he doesn't view Sunnis as better than Shias or vice versa or any of that. His whole stance of allying w/ the Russians in Syria is based on that: that militias that are financed by the Saudis, Turks or Qatar are just not reliable at best, and Jihadists at worst. That's why he's taken a position that's completely heterodox to the Republicans, if not downright heretical.

      On Iran, what he has to do is pull the plug on that deal, and make it clear to Iran's trading partners that they can choose to trade either w/ the US or Iran, but not both. If European countries are so enamored w/ trading w/ Iran, that's fine: just don't expect to do any business w/ the US.

      But as far as the Saudis go, we have no dog in the fight b/w Iran and Saudi Arabia. Both are our enemies, and the 2 of them fighting each other is an alien vs predator situation, to paraphrase Debbie Schlussel. Or like the 2 cats of Kilkinney. If they can fight each other and wipe each other out, then praise be to allah - nothing like it!

    5. Re: Why would this concern Trump? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why, indeed. Attacks allegedly "emanating from Iran" are not attacks by the Iranian state in the first place.

      Indeed. It is likely that this is just some disgruntled individuals, or even some rogue elements inside the government. Most Iranians dislike Arabs in general, and Saudis in particular. Iran also has plenty of people pissed off at the nuclear deal, and hoping to sabotage it by stirring up trouble. Ironically, the Saudis also hate the deal, but for different reasons.

    6. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by EEPROMS · · Score: 4, Informative

      The democrats love the Saudi's as they donate millions every year to them especially to the Clinton foundation. Trump on the other hand doesn't need the money so if the Saudi dictatorship have been financing terrorism in Syria in direct conflict with Russia then that's their own fault. Also the USA isn't as dependent on the Saudi's any more for their energy needs so I can't see why the USA should throw another few billion at the "waste of time" islamic infighting in the middle east.

    7. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by EEPROMS · · Score: 3, Insightful

      pfft use google and you get thousands of images for Clinton kissing Saudi butt what off it.

      https://www.google.com.au/sear...

      What I am talking about is real hard bribe money from a dictatorship that hates gays and restricts women's rights in the last election donating to a left leaning democratic party.

      http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

    8. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Because the most powerful leader in the world should have a world view utterly devoid of nuance.

      Ignorance is strength, I suppose.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    9. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, nuance, as in that thing that allowed Nixon and Kissinger to sort out that there isn't just one big monolithic thing called "Communists". Nuance, whereby Churchill happily made common cause with Stalin, despite knowing that Stalin was one of the vilest mass murderers in history (the British government knew about the Katyn Massacre, for instance).

      I realize we've entered an age where ignorance is worn proudly, but never have I seen it in more evidence than here, where people who actually spend more than fifteen seconds thinking about the complexities of the real world are regarded as inferior to people whose whole world view is just one big knee jerk response.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    10. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by chipschap · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually, I thought Obama was still the President. This happened on Obama's watch. It will be Trump's problem when he is sworn in, but right now it's in Obama's lap.

      Seems like a lot of /. stories lately have "Trump" in the title for little or no reason.

    11. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by dbIII · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is the very slim possibility that he will ally himself with Putin and Assad and finally take an active role in actually fighting back against ISIS

      And fighting our current allies in Syria that we were backing against Assad.
      It's a huge win for Putin and a huge stain on our reputation if he can trick Trump into doing that backstab. Trump is a babe in the woods who treats everything like a game and Putin is a professional spy turned gangster turned Tsar who will eat Trump for breakfast.
      I put the possibility at a lot more than slim.
      On the rest I agree with every word.

    12. Re:Why would this concern Trump? by unixisc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You have absolutely NOTHING to base your claim on that Trump has any support for Saudi Arabia. In fact, in the past, Saudi Arabia was one of the countries he would criticize, along w/ Japan. When Saudi Arabia executed Nimr al-Nimr, he was critical of them in a debate. In fact, in the GOP debates, while others like Rubio and Fiorina would describe Saudi Arabia as an ally, Trump would not, taking Russia's side in this.

      Trump's foreign policy stances are well known, except to stupid Democrats who conflate his positions w/ age old Bushisms. He was critical of the ouster of both Mubarak and Gadaffi, stating that removing them just resulted in replacements that turned out to be worse. And he was right - in the case of Egypt, there was a brief Muslim Brotherhood regime before the army took over and redid the election, and got Gen Sisi to power. And the NATO bombardment of Libya resulting in the lynching of Gadaffi resulted in Cyrenaica - their oil rich province - becoming ISIS territory.

  2. Slashdot Trolling? by SandmanWAIX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Slashdot Trolling? by BigBuckHunter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      I'd mod you up, but you're already +5

    2. Re:Slashdot Trolling? by unixisc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Precisely! This clickbait behavior by msmash, Editor David, Beau whatever is really getting long in the tooth and annoying

  3. lame by tsotha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:Better question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You don't consider large-scale state-sponsored hacking against another state to be "news for nerds"?

    Question the Trump angle all you like, but the actual news here is one of the relative few stories that really does belong on Slashdot.

  5. You mean posing a challenge for Obama? by mveloso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This should read "Posing a challenge to Obama." You know, the guy who's still President?