Aramco Says Cyberattack Was Aimed at Production

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/business/global/saudi-aramco-says-hackers-took-aim-at-its-production.html

By REUTERS
December 9, 2012

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Aramco, 
said on Sunday that a cyberattack against it in August that damaged some 
30,000 computers was aimed at stopping oil and gas production in Saudi 
Arabia, the biggest exporter in the Organization of the Petroleum 
Exporting Countries.

The attack on Saudi Aramco -- which supplies a tenth of the world’s oil 
-- failed to disrupt production, but was one of the most destructive 
hacker strikes against a single business.

“The main target in this attack was to stop the flow of oil and gas to 
local and international markets and thank God they were not able to 
achieve their goals,” Abdullah al-Saadan, Aramco’s vice president for 
corporate planning, said on Al Ekhbariya television. It was Aramco’s 
first comments on the apparent aim of the attack.

Hackers from a group called Cutting Sword of Justice claimed 
responsibility for the attack, saying that their motives were political 
and that the virus gave them access to documents from Aramco’s 
computers, which they threatened to release. No documents have yet been 
published.

[...]

______________________________________________
Visit the InfoSec News Security Bookstore
Best Selling Security Books and More!
http://www.shopinfosecnews.org