Saudi Arabia Cyberwarfare

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.