14 DAY TRIAL // Individuals connected to the investigation surrounding the breach that affected Saudi Aramco last month claim that actors from the inside helped the hackers penetrate the organization’s systems and infect some 30,000 devices with a computer virus.
On August 15, 2012, the world learned that the oil giant was hacked by a hacktivist group as a form of protest against the support offered by the company to various regimes in the Middle East.
Shortly after the incident, the company’s representatives claimed to have restored most of their services, stating that the damage caused by the virus, most likely the now-infamous Shamoon, was contained.
While Saudi Aramco has failed to provide any details regarding the manner in which the attackers penetrated their systems, in the past few weeks a lot of voices have claimed that their main suspect is someone from within the firm.
The hackers even claim that their employees have been tortured in order to make them confess their involvement in the attack.
According to Reuters, anonymous sources familiar with the investigation reinforce the fact that the number one suspect, or suspects, are from within the organization. For now, it’s uncertain if the culprit is an employee or a contractor.
In a recent survey commissioned by Cyber-Ark Software, the figures showed that 71% of managers believed that insiders posed a major threat to security.
On the other hand, a report published by Verizon regarding data breaches reveals that, in reality, actors from within an organization are involved in only around 4% of data breaches.
The hackers insisted on numerous occasions that they were not aided by anyone, but it’s clear that there are some clues which point to an inside culprit.
In the meantime, cyberattacks on major companies from the Middle East continue. At the end of August, Qatar’s RasGas – the world’s second largest liquefied natural gas producer – was hit by an unknown virus.