Aramco Condemns Cyber-criminals for Waging Assault against It

Saudi Arabia said that unknown people operating externally from the kingdom had waged cyber-assault on Aramco, the oil company under the ownership of Saudi Arabia, with an objective to stop crude getting produced from the globe's biggest supplier internationally and therefore upsetting the state economy, published businessweek.com dated December 9, 2012.

Using one PC-virus called 'Shamoon,' the assault caused workstations to become contaminated on August 15, 2012. Consequently, data from Internet-connected computers got destroyed as also hard-drives of separate PCs deleted. The oil firm stopped its key computer network for over seven days since 30,000 PCs or more got impacted during the assault. Approximately 85% of the entrepreneurial establishment's machines underwent hardware destruction.

A computer hacking group named 'Cutting Sword of Justice' said it was behind the assault, stating its purpose was politics oriented as also that the malware enabled to gain admission into documents stored on Aramco's PCs. The group even threatened that it would expose all the stolen documents although none has yet been so done.

It (hackers' group) made an online post on that very day when the data-files got erased, holding Saudi Arabia responsible for "violence and misdemeanor" across many nation-states, including Bahrain along with Syria.

Spokesman Major General Mansour Al-Turki on behalf of the Interior Ministry refrained from naming the many nations out of which the assault started as security probe was yet ongoing. According to him, the assault couldn't fulfill its ultimate objective i.e. preventing Saudi oil from getting supplied. Bloomberg.com published this dated December 9, 2012.

Al-Turki further stated that Aramco had removed the PC-virus thus cleansing its network as well as adopted measures for stopping more security hacks.

Chief of Aramco's investigators group Abdullah al-Saadan stated that the assault had no contractor or employee of the oil firm partnering in it. Consequently, neither crude oil output nor finished products were affected, he added. Bloomberg.com published this.

Meanwhile, Leon Panetta, USA's Defense Secretary along with other officials of America described the Aramco assault as clues about a developing international online conflict wherein Iran and other countries were becoming better in attacking governments and enterprises, published Bloomberg.com.

Related article: Awareness of Web Threats is Increasing in Corporate

» SPAMfighter News - 12/15/2012