Virus attack cripples Gulf energy companies' computer systems

Security technicians are beginning to suspect that highly targeted virus attacks were behind the recent crippling of computer systems at two major Gulf energy companies, even as questions swirl about the source of the strikes.

The computer disruptions at Saudi Aramco and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas do not appear to have affected oil and gas production. Yet they highlight another risk to the security of energy supplies in the Arabian Gulf region.

Neither company has said how much data may have been lost, but the scope of the attacks appears extensive. Aramco blocked all its electronic systems from outside access for several days to deal with the problem, which it says affected about 30,000 workstations last month. RasGas technicians were still working to fix that company's systems more than a week after being hit.

The virus thought to be involved in at least one of the attacks covers its tracks by erasing data on computer hard drives.

The attacks may not be over. Security and data storage company Symantec said this week that it is investigating reports of additional infections involving the virus at the centreof what security experts refer to as the Shamoon attacks. It's widely believed to be responsible for the Aramco disruption, and several security experts suspect it in the Qatar attack.

The virus can spread through networked computers and ultimately wipes out files by overwriting them.

Aviv Raff, the chief technology officer of computer security firm Seculert, said other companies outside the energy industry have also been affected, though confidentiality agreements prevent him from providing details.

Saudi Aramco revealed that its network was infected on August 15 when it announced it was disconnecting all its computer systems from outside access.

Two previously unknown groups immediately claimed responsibility for the Aramco attack in statements posted to a website often used by computer hackers.

Aramco said late last month that it had managed to restore all network services after cleaning computers affected by what it called "a malicious virus that originated from external sources." Key oil exploration and production operations had been unaffected because they use isolated computer networks, it said.

Unlike viruses that aim to hit as many targets as possible, this one appears designed to cripple computers on specific networks identified by the culprits, said Bulent Teksoz, chief security strategist for emerging markets at Symantec. He declined to name the affected organizations.

Some researchers, such as Raff, suspect the memory-wiping mechanism was simply a way to remove evidence of earlier incursions, during which hackers might have stolen information or rerouted network traffic.

Last week, Qatar's RasGas disclosed an August 27 attack by an unknown virus on its office computer systems. Technicians were still working to get the system running again. RasGas, a partnership between state-run Qatar Petroleum and U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp., said gas production has not been affected.

Exxon Mobil spokeswoman Adrienne Fleming declined to comment on the virus or whether the oil company itself had been hit, citing a company practice of not discussing security issues.

Even less is known about the RasGas infection. Like Aramco, the company has not publicly identified the virus responsible. But several security experts suspect the attacks are related, given the timing and the apparent similarity of the infections.

"My guess would be that it was another Shamoon attack," said Jeffrey Carr, the head of Taia Global, a computer security firm in McLean, Virginia. Carr believes hackers working on behalf of a foreign government were behind both attacks.

Alexander Klimburg, a computer security expert at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs, said the latest attacks against Saudi Arabia and Qatar are more complex than those typically employed by "hacktivist" groups seeking to highlight particular political or social causes.

However, Vitaly Kamluk, chief malware expert at Russian security company Kaspersky Lab, said that while the attacks appear to be acts of sabotage, there was no firm evidence that they were linked, nor was it known who exactly might be behind them.

"Attribution," he said, "is extremely hard in cyberspace."

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