Panetta: This Summer's Cyberattack On Middle Eastern Energy Firms Was Among The Most Destructive Ever

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta speaks about the Defense Department’s responsibility in cybersecurity during the Business Executives for National Security meeting in New York, Oct. 11, 2012. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Cyberattack On Mideast Energy Firms Was Among Most Destructive, Panetta Says -- Washington Post

A computer virus that wiped crucial business data from tens of thousands of computers at Middle Eastern energy companies over the summer marked the most destructive cyberattack on the private sector to date, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday night in a major speech intended to warn of the growing perils in cyberspace.

Panetta did not say who was believed to be behind the so-called Shamoon virus. But he said the malware, which rendered permanently inoperable more than 30,000 computers at the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco and did similar damage to the systems of Ras Gas in Qatar, represented a “significant escalation of the cyberthreat.”

Read more ....

My Comment: Someone deliberately directed an attack against our energy infrastructure .... it looks like cyberwarfare as a tool for influencing international policies is escalating.