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Saudi oil giant fixes network after cyber attack

RIYADH — Oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Monday it has restored its main internal network after a cyber attack nearly two weeks ago which failed to impact its oil production.

The company “restored all its main internal network services that were impacted on August 15, 2012, by a malicious virus that originated from external sources,” said a statement on its website.

Al Hayat daily quoted unnamed sources on Monday as saying that Saudi Aramco had managed to fix 90 per cent of the damage.

The world’s largest oil company said the attack affected about 30,000 work stations, but they have since been cleaned and restored to service, while remote Internet access to online resources was restricted “as a precaution.”

One of the company’s websites, www.aramco.com, remained down Monday with a message saying that Aramco had isolated its electronic systems from outside access.

The state-owned group which runs all Saudi Arabia’s oil production said that “hydrocarbon exploration and production were unaffected as they operate on isolated network systems.”

It said production plants also remained “fully operational” thanks to isolated control systems. Saudi Aramco president and CEO Khalid Al Falih said “this was not the first nor will it be the last illegal attempt to intrude into our systems,” pledging to further reinforce against possible future cyber attacks.

He added that the company “continues to investigate the causes of the incident and those responsible for it.”