Oil Min Spokesman: Ministry’s Main Information Unharmed In cyber attack

Tehran, April 24, IRNA – IRI Petroleum Ministry spokesman said here Monday cyber attack against communications and internet network of that ministry has not affected damage on Petroleum Ministry’s main data since general servers have been detached from main servers. According to the information website of the Petroleum Ministry, SHANA, Ali-Reza Nikzad-Rahbar emphasizing that the entire major and non-major information of the Petroleum Ministry have had backup files, added, “The Petroleum Ministry has a strong technical and engineering capability for countering the virus and cyber attacks.” Referring to the minor damage inflicted on general information of the ministry, he said, “of course saying that no part of the information has been damaged is not right, as merely the information related to a part of the users has been harmed in this cyber attack.” According to Nikzad, the attack has been a virus type which has created problems for the hard discs of the users’ systems, and the issue of recovering the users’ lost information, too, is currently under study. Iran disconnected several of its main Persian Gulf oil terminals from the Internet on Monday, local news media reported, as technicians were struggling to contain what they said was an intensifying cyber attack on the Oil Ministry and its affiliates. The Iranian officials said the virus attack, which began in earnest Sunday afternoon, had not affected oil production or exports, since the industry was still primarily mechanical and does not rely on the Internet. Officials said they were disconnecting the oil terminals and possibly some other installations in an effort to combat the virus. “Fortunately our international oil selling division has not been affected,” said a high-level manager at the Oil Ministry who asked not to be mentioned for security reasons. “There is no panic, but this shows we have shortcomings in our security systems.” The Iranian Students News Agency said that the virus, called “wiper” by its creator, had successfully erased information on hard disks at the Oil Ministry’s headquarters, a hulking black glass skyscraper on Taleqani Street in central Tehran. Two years ago, a computer worm called Stuxnet attacked Iranian nuclear facilities, knocking out an unknown number of centrifuges used for enriching uranium. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad eventually acknowledged that “enemies” had been successful in “making problems” by installing computer malware in industrial switches used to control the centrifuges, making them spin out of control at high speed. Iranian officials vowed at the time to erect better defenses against such attacks. No one has claimed responsibility for Stuxnet, but Israeli officials openly expressed glee over the attack. The United States has denied any involvement. Iran is among the world’s largest oil producers, and any disruption in supply would rattle the markets, almost certainly sending prices soaring. While officials here emphasize that both production and sales of oil are continuing as normal, the semi-official Mehr News Agency said that the attacks were increasing and that access to the internal communications systems of most prominent oil and gas companies had been intentionally cut. A special crisis center has been set up where experts from across the country are assisting in the fight against the virus; it quoted one such specialist working for the Oil Ministry as saying. The source of the attacks was still being investigated, an internal security official said. “For now, nullifying these attacks is on our agenda,” Hamdollah Mohammad-Nejad, the head of the Oil Ministry’s Civil Defense Office told the Mehr News Agency. This attack was very limited and only made some interruptions for some hours in the administrative part of the oil ministry,” said Hamid-Reza Taraqqi, a political analyst and spokesman for the Islamic Coalition Party, close to Ayatollah Ali Khamene’ie, the nation’s supreme leader. “This is again an attempt to wage soft war by the West, and does not have any impact on our operations.” Other affected organizations include the National Iranian Oil Processing and Distribution Company, National Iranian Gas Company, Iranian Offshore Oil Company, Pars Oil and Gas and many other companies functioning under the National Iranian Oil Company, which handles most oil sales in the country, the Mehr reported. /end