Iranian hackers target Bapco
MANAMA, January 10, 2020
Bapco, Bahrain's national oil company, has been targeted by Iranian state-sponsored hackers with a new strain of data-wiping malware, a report said.
Details of the data breach at Bapco were confirmed to the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister newspaper, following a report that claimed Iranian state-sponsored hackers were behind the attack.
The incident took place on December 29. The attack did not have the long-lasting effect hackers might have wanted, as only a portion of Bapco's computer fleet was impacted, with the company continuing to operate after the malware's detonation, said a ZDNet report.
The Bapco incident is the cyber-attack described in a security alert published last week by Saudi Arabia's National Cybersecurity Authority, said the report. Saudi officials sent the alert to local companies active on the energy market, in an attempt to warn of impending attacks, and urging companies to secure their networks, it said.
The Bapco security incident came to light amid rising political tensions between the US and Iran after the US military killed a top Iranian military general in a drone strike last week.
At the heart of the Bapco attack is a new strain of malware named Dustman, a so-called data wiper -- malware designed to delete data on infected computers, once launched into execution.
