Cyberattack on Saudi Oil Firm Disquiets U.S.
Shamoon
That virus â called Shamoon after a word embedded in its code â was designed to do two things: replace the data on hard drives with an image of a burning American flag and report the addresses of infected computers â a bragging list of sorts â back to a computer inside the companyâs network.
 Shamoonâs code  included a so-called kill switch  a timer set to attack at 11:08 a.m.  the exact time that Aramcoâs computers were wiped of memory. Shamoonâs creators even gave the erasing mechanism a name: Wiper.
Computer security researchers noted that the same name  Wiper  had been given to an erasing component of Flame   a computer virus that attacked Iranian oil companies and came to light in May. Iranian oil ministry officials have claimed that  the Wiper software code  forced them to cut Internet connections to their oil ministry  oil rigs and the Kharg Island oil terminal  a conduit for 80 percent of Iranâs oil exports.
 It  raised suspicions that the Aramco hacking was retaliation. The United States fired one of the first shots in the computer war and has long maintained the upper hand. The New York Times reported in June that the United States  together with Israel   was responsible for Stuxnet   the computer virus used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.
If American officials are correct that  Shamoon  was designed by Iran  then clues in its code may have been intended to misdirect blame.  Shamoon âs programmers inserted the word âArabian Gulfâ into  its  code. But Iranians refer to that body of water as the Persian Gulf and are very protective of the name. (This year  Iran threatened to sue Google for removing the name Persian Gulf from its online maps.)
That virus â called Shamoon after a word embedded in its code â was designed to do two things: replace the data on hard drives with an image of a burning American flag and report the addresses of infected computers â a bragging list of sorts â back to a computer inside the companyâs network.
 Shamoonâs code  included a so-called kill switch  a timer set to attack at 11:08 a.m.  the exact time that Aramcoâs computers were wiped of memory. Shamoonâs creators even gave the erasing mechanism a name: Wiper.
Computer security researchers noted that the same name  Wiper  had been given to an erasing component of Flame   a computer virus that attacked Iranian oil companies and came to light in May. Iranian oil ministry officials have claimed that  the Wiper software code  forced them to cut Internet connections to their oil ministry  oil rigs and the Kharg Island oil terminal  a conduit for 80 percent of Iranâs oil exports.
 It  raised suspicions that the Aramco hacking was retaliation. The United States fired one of the first shots in the computer war and has long maintained the upper hand. The New York Times reported in June that the United States  together with Israel   was responsible for Stuxnet   the computer virus used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010.
If American officials are correct that   [TGT] was designed by Iran  then clues in its code may have been intended to misdirect blame.   [TGT]  âs programmers inserted the word âArabian Gulfâ into   [TGT]   code. But Iranians refer to that body of water as the Persian Gulf and are very protective of the name. (This year  Iran threatened to sue Google for removing the name Persian Gulf from its online maps.)