U.S. Officials Believe Iran Is Behind Recent Cyberattacks
U.S. Officials Believe Iran Is Behind Recent Cyberattacks Security Clearance Blogs
Although officials have not made such an assertion publicly, they have characterized the attacks that occurred in recent months as initiated by a “state actor.” The U.S. intelligence apparatus observed and tracked the attacks as coming out of Iran, a third official said Monday. The official would not describe further what was observed but said the belief is the perpetrators were surrogates working with the Iranian government.
‘We strongly believe there is a relationship between the people typing the code and people running the government,’ according to the official.
…
Calling it a “pre-9/11 moment,” Panetta said he is particularly worried about a significant escalation of attacks and highlighted a cyber virus known as “Shamoon.” The virus infected the computers of major energy firms in Saudi Arabia and Qatar this past summer.In Saudi Arabia, more than 30,000 computers were rendered useless by the attack on the state oil company ARAMCO. Ras Gas was affected in Qatar.
Panetta said the attacks were probably the most devastating to ever hit the private sector.
You know we’ve got an army of keyboard jocks somewhere beating the hell out of these fools. I like to imagine how much fun that must be… too bad I can’t get the security clearance for it.