In the same hours in which I was publishing my post on Cyber Weapons, news agencies all around the world have begun to release (few) details about a new alleged Cyber Attack targeting the Iranian Oil Ministry, the National Iranian Oil Company and several other state-owned businesses.
The attack has been confirmed by a spokesman of the Iranian Oil Ministry, who also stressed that critical data have not been damaged or lost in the attack. Anyway, as a consequence of the Cyber Attack albeit as a precaution Internet access to several oil refineries has been cut off.
Of course Iran is not new to Cyber Attacks targeting Critical Infrastructures (do you remember Stuxnet and the possible hoax of Duqu Stars?), in any case it is too soon to draw any connection with Stuxnet or any other kind of State-Sponsored Attack, even because, according to the scant information available, only a server providing public information has been harmed.
Probably this malware has nothing to deal with cyber weapons but, just for fun, I cannot help but notice that this alleged Cyber Attack came in the same day in which, among many doubts, Iran has announced to have reverse-engineered the U.S. stealthy RQ-170 Sentinel drone captured by Iran in December 2011.
The revenge of the reverse-engineered drone?
A new Cyber Attack to #Iran Oil Facilities… WTF! The #Stuxnet 2 malware inside the reverse-engineered drone was successful…
— Paolo Passeri (@paulsparrows) April 23, 2012
Obviously it’s ironic, but what if the drone was actually a Trojan horse?
[Read also: Captured U.S. stealthy drone in Iran: the simplest solution solves the mystery]
The mysterious hatch possibly housing a recovery chute. Image courtesy: Dave Krakow
Related articles
- What is a Cyber Weapon? (theaviationist.com)
- Iran claims it has decoded the U.S. stealthy RQ-170 Drone Intel but provides unsubstantiated evidence to prove it. (theaviationist.com)
