Saudi Aramco the Latest Victim of a Cyber-Attack

Cyber-attacks are becoming more and more common as of late. Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, has released a statement explaining that a virus attacked its computer systems yesterday. The virus caused them to isolate many electrical systems in an effort to contain the infection. None of the vital components of the network were affected so oil production was able to continue uninterrupted. The other systems should return to normal operations shortly.

“The network that runs the company’s major operations is safe, and there are no effects whatsoever on production operations. The electronic systems were isolated completely today and access to them from the outside was prevented as a precautionary measure.”

This attack follows others such as the Stuxnet virus which damaged systems at an Iranian nuclear plant around two years ago; a worm which targeted Iran’s crude oil industry in April; a virus known as Flame which recently attacked the Middle East (mainly Iran) in order to steal sensitive data; and a different worm known as Gauss which infiltrated the systems at Lebanese banks.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com