Middle East Cyberwarfare

1 middle east

1.1 iran
1.2 israel
1.3 saudi arabia

middle east
iran

iran has been both victim , predator of several cyberwarfare operations. iran considered emerging military power in field.

in september 2010, iran attacked stuxnet worm, thought target natanz nuclear enrichment facility. 500-kilobyte computer worm infected @ least 14 industrial sites in iran, including natanz uranium-enrichment plant. although official authors of stuxnet haven’t been officially identified, stuxnet believed developed , deployed united states , israel. worm said advanced piece of malware ever discovered , increases profile of cyberwarfare.

israel

in 2006 war against hezbollah, israel alleges cyber-warfare part of conflict, israel defense forces (idf) intelligence estimates several countries in middle east used russian hackers , scientists operate on behalf. result, israel attached growing importance cyber-tactics, , became, along u.s., france , couple of other nations, involved in cyber-war planning. many international high-tech companies locating research , development operations in israel, local hires veterans of idf s elite computer units. richard a. clarke adds our israeli friends have learned thing or 2 programs have been working on more 2 decades.

in september 2007, israel carried out airstrike on syria dubbed operation orchard. u.s. industry , military sources speculated israelis may have used cyberwarfare allow planes pass undetected radar syria.

saudi arabia

on august 15, 2012 @ 11:08 local time, shamoon virus began destroying on 35,000 computer systems, rendering them inoperable. virus used target saudi government causing destruction state owned national oil company saudi aramco. attackers posted pastie on pastebin.com hours prior wiper logic bomb occurring, citing oppression , al-saud regime reason behind attack.

pastie announcing attack against saudi aramco group called cutting sword of justice

the attack staged according chris kubecka, former security advisor saudi aramco after attack , group leader of security aramco overseas. unnamed saudi aramco employee on information technology team opened malicious phishing email, allowing initial entry computer network around mid-2012

shamoon 1 attack timeline against saudi aramco

kubecka detailed in black hat usa talk saudi aramco placed majority of security budget on ics control network, leaving business network @ risk major incident. when realize of security budget spent on ics & gets pwnd . virus has been noted have behavior differing other malware attacks, due destructive nature , cost of attack , recovery. defense secretary leon panetta called attack cyber pearl harbor known years later biggest hack in history , intended cyber warfare. shamoon can spread infected machine other computers on network. once system infected, virus continues compile list of files specific locations on system, upload them attacker, , erase them. virus overwrites master boot record of infected computer, making unusable. virus has been used cyber warfare against national oil companies of saudi arabia s, saudi aramco , qatar s rasgas.

saudi aramco announced attack on facebook page , went offline again until company statement issued on 25 august 2012. statement falsely reported normal business resumed on 25 august 2012. middle eastern journalist leaked photographs taken on 1 september 2012 showing kilometers of petrol trucks unable loaded due backed business systems still inoperable.

tanker trucks unable loaded gasoline due shamoon attacks

on august 29, 2012 same attackers behind shamoon posted pastie on pastebin.com, taunting saudi aramco proof still retained access company network. post contained username , password on security , network equipment , new password ceo khalid al- falih attackers referenced portion of shamoon malware further proof in pastie.

according kubecka, in order restore operations. saudi aramco used large private fleet of aircraft , available funds purchase of world s hard drives, driving price up. new hard drives required possible oil prices not affected speculation. september 1, 2012 gasoline resources dwindling public of saudi arabia 17 days after august 15th attack. rasgas affected different variant, crippling them in similar manner.