Iran has been forced to disconnect key oil facilities after suffering a malware attack, say reports.
The computer virus is believed to have hit the internal computer systems at Iran's oil ministry and its national oil company.
Equipment on the Kharg island and at other Iranian oil plants has been disconnected from the net as a precaution.
Oil production had not been affected by the attack, said the Mehr news
agency. However, the attack is believed to have been responsible for
knocking off-line the websites of the Iranian oil ministry and national
oil company. The Ministry website was back in action on the next day,
but the oil company web site has remained unreachable.
An Iranian oil ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying that data
about users of the sites had been stolen as a result of the attack. Core
data about Iran's oil industry remained safe because it was on computer
systems that remain separate from the net, they added.
The terminal on Kharg Island handles about 90% of Iran's oil exports.
Iran is reported to have mobilised a "cyber crisis committee" to handle the aftermath of the attack and bolster defences.
This committee was set up following attacks in 2010 by a virus known as
Stuxnet that was aimed at the nation's nuclear programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17811565
No comments:
Post a Comment