FT: Cyber saboteurs stalk the oil industry

The oil industry is facing a new menace: cyber attacks. Last year Saudi Aramco, a leading oil and gas producer, was hit by a virus known as Shamoon that erased data on at least 30,000 of its corporate PCs.

Aramco said the aim of the attack had been to shut down production at the company, which accounts for more than 10 per cent of global oil supplies. Abdallah al-Saadan, Aramco’s vice-president for corporate planning, said hackers had been trying for a month to bring down the system before succeeding in exploiting certain weak points.

Shamoon also hit Qatar’s Rasgas, the liquefied natural gas producer, shutting down the company’s website and some of its internal servers. US intelligence believes Iran was behind both attacks. MORE