In mid-May, Saudi Arabia admitted that some of its government websites had come under a sustained denial of service attack, with a group called Saudi Anonymous using Twitter to not just claim responsibility but also provide a running commentary of its actions and targets in both Arabic and English, finally declaring on 18 May that: “Today is our last day on #OpSaudi, moi.gov.sa [Ministry of Interior] will be our last target.”
But while the attacks on Virgin Radio and Saudi government sites are a malicious inconvenience, the big threat now is around the major industries of the Middle East.
But it also brought home to organisations in the Middle East that cyberattacks were a real threat, it highlighted the importance of strong security systems and caused some internal soul searching. If Iran’s nuclear facilities can be hit, then could the same happen to the region’s oil and gas facilities, so important to the economies of the oil-exporting nations, or the power and water desalination plants?
One of the world’s most valuable companies, at an estimated $10 trillion, and the world’s biggest oil producer, pumping about 12.5 million barrels a day from its fields, Aramco was hit by a malware attack that infected 30,000 computers.
Now, security experts elsewhere are warning that the instances of attacks emanating from the Middle East is rising fast, with around 10 US utility companies the target of attempts to take over plant processes (sound familiar?).