Article Image

IPFS News Link • Energy

Qatari Gas Company Hit With Virus in Wave of Attacks on Energy Companies

• Kim Zetter via WIRED.com
 

The Qatari natural gas company commonly known as RasGas has been hit with a virus that shut down its website and e-mail servers, according to news reports.

The malware, however, did not affect the company’s operational computers that control the production and delivery of gas, an official of the Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas company told Bloomberg.

The attack reportedly began Aug. 27. The RasGas website was still unavailable on Thursday, three days after the attack.

Qatar is the world’s largest producer of liquified natural gas. RasGas, a joint operation of Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, distributes about 36 million tons of the resource annually.

It’s unclear if the malware that struck RasGas is the same Shamoon malware that is believed to have been used in an attack earlier this month against Saudi Aramco.

Shamoon has a destructive payload that deletes files on computers that it infects, according to researchers at Israeli security firm Seculert, who have examined it.

Officials of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, acknowledged last weekend that about 30,000 of its computers were affected in that attack, but also claimed that production and distribution of oil were not affected. The attack reportedly replaced data on machines with images of a burning U.S. flag after destroying files.


www.BlackMarketFridays.com