An Unknown Hacker Group Claims That It Shut Down the World's Largest Oil Company

An Unknown Hacker Group Claims That It Shut Down the World's Largest Oil Company

www .gizmodo.co.uk

The NY Times is reporting that unknown computer hackers who call themselves “Cutting Sword of Justice” have claimed responsibility for spreading a malicious virus into Saudi Aramco, the Saudi government-owned oil company that’s also the world’s largest, and destroying three-quarters of all its computers. The hackers used a similar virus as the government created virus, Flame.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Some 30k computers messed up. This is some attack. Its not a simple Ddos protest. This has caused a lot of damage and was done using a modified version of the flame virus.

There reasons for the attack.. That's will happen for two reason:
1- you're brutal and selfish to harm any employee just for the sake of expecting.
2- we do hate, hate a lot, arrogance.

Be prepared for something you will see in your eyes and you will not be able to stop it.

http:///WKSk3pmp

If the intent is to do damage then this group has hit the nail on the head amd they plan to do it again.

I think the over reaction of governments locking kids up for years for doing peaceful Ddos attacks has pushed hacktivism into a corner. If you going to get locked anyway if you are caught you may as well hit them hard....

www .gizmodo.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I certainly hope for their sake, they are the best hackers, criminals, counterintelligence specialists and plain magicians the world has ever seen. Hacking the CIA would be bad....they'd hunt people down. Same with Mossad....even Iran would go hunt someone down at some point.

The Saudis throw millions of dollars around like the rest of us throw $20's around for a pizza. If they get pissed enough and this did enough damage, they could drop a bounty of whatever amount they want ...there is almost no limit...either publicly or Deeper in private, either way wouldn't matter. It'll make the biggest private mole hunt ever.

Saudi Arabia wouldn't be the nation to mess with short of Nation-State resources...Not against people who are literally in a God-Mode type cheat for the money everyone else in the world does anything and everything for a piece of, IMO.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Yep I agree messing with the oil money is playing with fire. This kind of damage is at a different level to Anon. These boys or girls will need to be ghosts to get away with this.

Whooa
I didn't see that coming.

They may blame it on "hackers", implying it was teens or some random collective of computer geeks, but this looks a lot more like industrial espionage or something with a clandestine government backing.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
They may blame it on "hackers", implying it was teens or some random collective of computer geeks, but this looks a lot more like industrial espionage or something with a clandestine government backing.

Governments are not without blame here. If they are going to release this kind of virus into the wild then they should be held accountable too. Maybe you are correct. I dont really know. It could have been done with government backing. I do not know anything about this group. I have never heard of them before. Either way its a professional job. Not a bunch of script kiddies..

If they can bring it down then I for one, applaud them. We needed better fuel alternatives years ago.

reply to post by th3onetruth


Its good to know there are still people with the balls and brains to take on these evil people.

I see this as possibly an inside job, A perfect reason to jack up the prices of oil again. Why would hackers shut down an oil company, when ultimately we are the ones who will pay for it?

Originally posted by Firefly_
reply to post by th3onetruth

 

Its good to know there are still people with the balls and brains to take on these evil people.

For fact, The Sword has my support if they are actually the common man seeking to rid the world of corruption.

Does this attack mean the company cannot distribute its product?
I am guessing all the refineries are computer controlled.
This could be major for the world if all of a sudden the biggest oil company cannot distribute.

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
Does this attack mean the company cannot distribute its product?
I am guessing all the refineries are computer controlled.
This could be major for the world if all of a sudden the biggest oil company cannot distribute.

Yea this could be the push Man needed to finally start looking for healthier and greener fuels.

HMMMMMMM

Just hours after an unknown group of computer hackers took credit for a cyberattack on Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, last Wednesday, security researchers at Symantec received a sample of the malware that may be responsible. The malware, named Shamoon after a word that appeared in its code, was designed to spy on computers and then overwrite critical files with a small parcel of a larger image of a burning United States flag.

Could it be.......

I've heard speculation from more than one source in Saudi Arabia that the malware attack against Saudi Aramco's network was an Iranian operation to discourage Saudi Armaco from increasing its oil production to compensate for Iran's decrease in oil deliveries due to sanctions imposed on it by the U.S. and European Union. Iran warned Saudi Arabia against boosting production last January after the Kingdom's oil minister pledged to boost production if there was a demand for more oil.

Iran has been known to use its indigenous hacker population to run state-sponsored attacks in the past during Operation Cast Lead (Ashianeh Security Group). Other well-known and highly skilled Iranian hackers include the Iranian Cyber Army and ComodoHacker.

UPDATE (23AUG12): I've received new information from knowledgable sources that the attack vector for delivery of the worm was via a USB stick inserted into a workstation at one of Aramco's global offices (not in Saudi Arabia). Further, the timing of the attack was carefully chosen to be one hour before the end of the work day which was the end of the month of Ramadan and the start of the Eid holiday.

So you have Kapersky stating that this is not Flame and speculation that this is the reversed engineered product of the Wiper virus that hit Iran's Oil Production and although the group taking responsibility denies, (and logically so considering claims of toture of employees) a possible insider starting the attack.

Who is the "sword of justice"? What kind of "justice" are they hoping to bring about by these actions? Who gets "justice"? They aren't hurting one of the biggest and richest companies in the world or even Saudi Arabia (other than a mild inconvenience) which will pass the cost of this (and future attacks) on to the ordinary people of the world.

If this isn't an attack by one nation state on another nation state, who benefits?

I see that this will just hurt the average joe struggling to make it in this economy. Wrongs compounded by wrongs do not make things right.

Originally posted by th3onetruth

Originally posted by Silcone Synapse
Does this attack mean the company cannot distribute its product?
I am guessing all the refineries are computer controlled.
This could be major for the world if all of a sudden the biggest oil company cannot distribute.

Yea this could be the push Man needed to finally start looking for healthier and greener fuels.

edit on 24-8-2012 by th3onetruth because: (no reason given)

But it could be one hell of a push-If the biggest oil company suddenly stops distributing,even for a couple of days,it could lead to a breakdown of some societys of the west.
This is a real cyber attack,with implications which could potentially effect us all.

wow

that is some attack, and i truly hope these hackers know how to cover their tracks....
got my fingers crossed for them

s+f OP

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


The fact that they used a modified version of Flame, makes me highly suspicious of who possibly did it.

I personally do not see this as a good thing; I bet they heavily invested in oil before doing this hack attack to fund themselves on our backs; because this is just another excuse to spike the gas prices yet again...so yeah Sword of whatever, thanks for nothing.

It seems that if this attack came from Iran...
The retaliation would come from the west.
Since we are such great "buddies" with the Saudis...
(really we are just the people who prop their entire world up)
Then this may spark interest in getting higher gas prices.
Higher gas prices will piss off the public and they'll ask questions...
The answers will be that the Iranians started the fight, so we cry in the streets.
Thus, blaming the Iranians on the attack...
Justifying a reason to start a war with them.




Man this is too obvious.
(or delibrate so the war drums beat on)

So the Cyberwars against the corporations really begins.

Information war, Economic war, cyber war, what comes next is anybodys "Educated" guess.