Iran's Oil Industry Hit By Cyber Attacks

wiredmikey writes "Iran disconnected computer systems at a number of its oil facilities in response to a cyber attack that hit multiple industry targets during the weekend. A source at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) reportedly told Reuters that a virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island oil terminal, which handles the majority of Iran's crude oil exports. In addition, computer systems at Iran's Oil Ministry and its national oil company were hit. There has been no word on the details of the malware found, but computer systems controlling several of Iran's oil facilities were disconnected from the Internet as a precaution. Oil Ministry spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad-Rahbar told Mehr News Agency on Monday that the attack had not caused significant damage and the worm had been detected before it could infect systems."

ITT

[WinstonWolfIT]

In this thread, we have a computer at one of Iran's larger oil companies popping up an Avast alert due to an intern attempting to surf porn, and because of policies in place due to stuxnet, the entire computing infrastructure of Iran shuts down as a result. Gotta love spy.v.spy.

Re:how long?

[Black Parrot]

before Iran retaliates and the whole thing escalates into WW3

I wonder how much of this kind of stuff is the work of 'Anonymous' style vigilantes, who think they should attack anyone and everyone that they don't approve of for some reason.

Perpetual non-state cyberwar may be the future of the internet.

Re:Closing the door after the horse has bolted

[jaymemaurice]

Except... nuclear enrichment facilities were not on the net...

Re:Recent IT escalation?

[LittleImp]

Occams Razor: Someone accidentally downloaded a virus while surfing at work.

Re:how long?

[Grayhand]

"Most of the participants came from "friendly" countries." Saudi Arabia is only "friendly" if you are an oil company. It certainly isn't friendly if you are a woman or a Jew. It's funny how billions of dollars in oil can make you a friend no matter how hostile you are.

Wrong on two accounts :)

[tinkerton]

I don't see how pp would be implicating that. And your imagination is seriously lacking. A majority of Americans at some point believed Saddam was behind 9/11, and in the military it was over 80%.

The claims about Iran aiding Al Qaedy aren't very successful.. On the other hand currently 71% of americans think Iran already has nuclear weapons (CNN nationwide poll, quality of sampling not known). While at the same time the NYTimes has stopped claiming that the west suspects Iran is working on a bomb, as a result of intelligence services speaking out loud enough. The claim has been quietly modified to "Iran might want to use their civilian program to help them to make a bomb later on".

Re:how long?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the participants came from "friendly" countries.

"Most of the participants came from "friendly" countries." Saudi Arabia is only "friendly" if you are an oil company. It certainly isn't friendly if you are a woman or a Jew. It's funny how billions of dollars in oil can make you a friend no matter how hostile you are.

I'm pretty sure that is why he put quotation marks around the word "friendly" to indicate ironic intent.

Re:Wrong on two accounts :)

[SuricouRaven]

I'm no expert on nuclear engineering, but I gather that if you have a full nuclear power program it isn't that hard to make a bomb. The enrichment capability is exactly the same equipment, you just have to keep cycling until you reach weapons-grade. Once you've got the uranium to weapons-grade, a basic gun-type nuclear device is so simple any metalworking shop could make it with ease. It's the enrichment that's the big, expensive, highly-skilled part.

...until the US attacks yet another country?

[Vincent77]

There is one country that has most of the nuclear warheads, Interfered in or even started most of the wars in the past 20 years, and is not silent on their goal for world-domination, and guess once, it is not Iran.

Re:I bet the Jews did this

[jon_doh2.0]

Come on: There are a plethora of cases where "anti Zionism" (why can't we just call it criticism of a state actor?) does not = antisemitism. Zionism and Judaism are not synonymous.

Re:Another could say

[crazyjj]

It probably doesn't help that Israel built a giant fucking wall [wikipedia.org] around the entire West Bank, effectively creating a Palestinian ghetto. I guess they learned something from the Nazi's after all.