Saudi Arabia on alert for cyber attacks
The labor ministry said it had been attacked and a chemicals firm reported a network disruption
Saudi Arabia’s telecoms authority has warned organizations in the kingdom to be on alert for a virus named Shamoon.
The virus is known to cripple computers by wiping their disks and is a variant of the 2012 virus that crippled tens thousands of computers at oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The kingdom’s labor ministry had said it was attacks, while a chemicals firm reported a network disruption.
Shamoon disrupts computers by overwriting the master book record, making it impossible for them to start up, according to Reuters news agency,
The Shamoon hackers were likely working on behalf of the Iranian government in the 2012 campaign and the more-recent attacks, Adam Meyers, vice president with cyber security firm CrowdStrike said, in comments reported by Reuters. "It's likely they will continue," he added.
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