Iran denies successful cyber attacks hit infrastructures of its oil sector

In the last hours, some western media reported destructive cyber attacks against infrastructures in the Iranian oil sector, but Iran denied it.

Last week drone attacks have hit two major oil facilities run by the state-owned company Aramco in Saudi Arabia, one of them is the Abqaiq site.

Western Governments and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attacks.

Immediately after Saudi Arabia oil attacks, experts speculated an escalation of cyber attacks against Iranian oil infrastructure as retaliation.

Today Iran denied that its oil infrastructure had been successfully hit by a cyber attacks.

“Contrary to Western media claims, investigations done today show no successful cyber attack was made on the country’s oil installations and other crucial infrastructure,” reads a statement published by the government’s cyber security office.

Despite the statement, security experts believe that a cyber offensive against Iranian infrastructure is onoing.

According to NetBlocks, an organization that tracks internet outages, the country suffered limited intermittent disruptions of internet connectivity.

Confirmed: Network data show intermittent disruptions to internet connectivity in #Iran from 6:30 PM UTC amid reports of disruptions and outages affecting online industrial and government platforms; limited impact affecting specific providers; root cause not yet established 📉 pic.twitter.com/BqIH9inxwc

— NetBlocks (@netblocks) September 20, 2019

The cause of the outage affecting online industrial and government platforms is not clear, but it could be consistent with a cyber attack.

“Data are consistent with a cyber attack or unplanned technical incident on affected networks as opposed to a purposeful withdrawal or shutdown incident,” it added.

In June, after media reported a cyber offensive launched by the US against Iran, Teheran announced that alleged cyber attack against its infrastructure has ever succeeded.

The Iranian telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi labeled the activity against its state as “cyber terrorism — such as Stuxnet — and unilateralism — such as sanctions”.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Iran, hacking)

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